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Valdemoro (Municipality, Community of Madrid, Spain)

Flag of Valdemoro - Image by Ivan Sache, 29 August 2019

Presentation of Valdemoro
Symbols of Valdemoro
- Adoption process
- Aborted adoption process (2008)

See also:

Presentation of Valdemoro

The municipality of Valdemoro (72,265 inhabitants in 2014; 6,420 ha; municipal website) is located in the south of the Community of Madrid, on the border with Castilla-La Mancha (Province of Toledo), 30 km of Madrid. The municipality experienced a demographic boom in the second half of the 20th century, its population increasing from 4,411 in 1960 to 28,243 in 2000.

Valdemoro was established, according to Thomás López, geographer at the Court (18th century), "by the Moors, as Valle del Miro; at the time a borough of Bayona [Titulcia] located 5 leagues form the downtown, the place was the seat of the Court of the Arab kings, with a very high population". The geographer most probably exaggerated the significance of the place, which is not mentioned on any document, and was rather a hamlet located on a main road connecting northern and southern Castile. Archeological remains, however, support a Muslim foundation of the settlement.
Valdemoro is first documented in the privilege granted in 1190 by King Alfonso VIII, allocating the place to the Council of Segovia, following arbitration by Pope Clement III. Valdemoro was made the capital of a sexmo (administrative division) of the Community of the Town and Land of Segovia, encompassing Chinchón, Bayona, Valdelaguna, Villaconejos, Seseña, Ciempozuelos and San Martín de la Vega. Transferred at the end of the 14th century to the Archbishop of Toledo, Valdemoro was granted the status of villa by King Henry III and eventually granted in 1480 to the Marquess of Moya by the Catholic Monarchs.
In 1577, Philip III granted Valdemoro to Melchor de Herrera, Marquis of Auñón and Regidor of the Council of Madrid. His heirs sold the domain to one of the most influent men at the Court, Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma and favourite of the king. The Duke organized wealthy feasts in the town when the Court was heading to Aranjuez. The town was granted several Royal privileges, including a tax-free fair (1603), whose duration soon increased from eight to 20 days due to its fame.
In the 18th century, José Aguado Correa, a noble at the Court, prevented his birth town to decline by establishing a manufacture of fine cloth, supporting the industrial renovation promoted by the Bourbon dynasty. In the last years of the century, Pedro López de Lerena, State Councillor and Minister of Charles III and Charles IV, also favoured his birth town, founding public schools and initiating education for girls. He funded the revamping of the parish church, which had been damaged by the Lisbon earthquake in 1751 and hired famous artists, such as Goya, to decorate it.

Valdemoro was one of the epicentres of the anti-corruption operation known as Púnica, a veiled allusion to its main target, Francisco Granados - the Latin name of the pomegranate, in Spanish, granado, is Punica granatum. Granados (b. 1964), Mayor of Valdemoro from 1999 to 2003, Secretary General of the PP for the Community of Madrid from 2004 to 2011, and Councillor at the Government of the Community of Madrid from 2003 to 2011, was accused in different cases of corruption and political spying. He was arrested on 27 October 2014, together with 50 other local politicians, and jailed on 31 October 2014. His appeal was rejected by the National Court of Appeals, which stated that "he was part of a criminal organization dedicated to money laundering, fiscal fraud, document forgery, corruption and traffic of influence, and therefore considered his jailing is legal, namely because of the risk of escape and destruction of evidence".
[El Pais, 30 October 2014]

Ivan Sache, 31 July 2015

Symbols of Valdemoro

The results of the public vote for the flag of Valdemoro were published on 3 May 2019. Out of the 3,702 votes, proposal No. 3 received 1,082 votes (40%); it will be adopted by the Municipal Council and submitted to the Community of Madrid for official registration.
Proposal No. 4 received 634 votes (23.5%), followed by proposals No. 1 (523 votes; 19.4%) and No. 2 (463 votes; 17.1%).
[Municipal website]

The municipal coat of arms featured on the flag is the "rehabilitated" coat of arms (with the Moorish king placed dexter and a bordure inscribed with the town's name), which was also proposed in 2008 and is expected to be officially registered with the flag.
[TeleMadrid, 9 April 2019]

Ivan Sache, 29 August 2019

Adoption process

The flag proposal adopted in 2008 by the Municipal Council does not seem to have been so consensual, since it was never officially registered. Being the only "big" municipality in the Community without a proper flag, Valdemoro decided to organize an election to solve the 20-years old conflict between the political groups at the Municipal Council.
The "Valdemoro Decide" platform was set up on the municipal website to present the four proposals and collect the citizen's votes. Every resident of Valdemoro, 18 years old or more, can vote; the election is open from 9 to 30 April.

Flag proposals - Images by Ivan Sache, 29 August 2019

The proposals, "selected by a consensus of the groups represented at the Municipal Council", have been approved by the Heraldry Commission of the Community of Madrid and the Royal Academy "Matritense" for "compliance with the due requirements for that kind of emblems".
No. 1. Flag horizontally divided white-crimson red with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
No. 2. Crimson red flag with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
No. 3. White flag with two diagonal stripes running from the lower hoist to the upper fly, green over crimson red, with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
No. 4. White flag with a green border and the municipal coat of arms in the center, surrounded by two green grapevine leaves.

White is a symbol of the gypsum quarries mainly located on the municipal territory and once the main source of income in Valdemoro. Crimson red is the color of the flag of the Community of Madrid. Green is the color of olive trees and grapevine, which were the main crops in Valdemoro in the past.
[Municipal website]

The re-emergence of the flag issue has to be considered in the aftermath of the reconquest of the Town Hall by the PSOE in July 2017, after a motion of defiance against the C's former mayor. On 29 January 2018, the new municipal majority announced it would ask "people's opinion" on different issues, first of them, the design of a municipal flag.
[EuropaPress, 29 January 2018]

Ivan Sache, 22 April 2019

Aborted adoption process

The Municipal Council of Valdemoro launched in 2001 the process of "rehabilitation" of the municipal coat of arms and design of a municipal flag. The proposals were eventually adopted, unanimously, on 4 August 2008. The proposed flag is blue - the main colour of the coat of arms - with the municipal arms in the middle.
The coat of arms proposed for "rehabilitation" is modelled on the oldest known arms of the town, which have been crowning the Town's Fountain since 1605. The proposed arms are described as follows (Official press release, 24 September 2008):

Coat of arms: Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules dexter a Moorish king clad with a coat gules and ermine and a tunic vert crowned or holding a sceptre dexter the shoulder chained by chains argent to the crenels of the castle a bordure or charged with "Valdemoro" in letters sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The "rehabilitated" coat of arms of Valdemoro was originally prescribed by Decree No. 1,955, adopted on 7 May 1969 by the Spanish Government and published on 4 June 1969 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 133, pp. 8,756-8,757 (text). The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules sinister a Moorish king clad with a coat gules and argent crowned or holding a sceptre sinister the fist dexter chained by a chain argent to the donjon of the castle.

The coat of arms alludes to the legendary resistance of the inhabitants of the town during the Muslim invasion, also highlighted in the local dictum En balde, moro, te cansas (Moor, you tire yourself to no avail).
[Madridiario, 8 May 2013]

Ivan Sache, 31 July 2015

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