Santa Fe, New Mexico (alt)

The field of Santa Fe’s flag is yellow with the city’s seal in its center. The seal consists of a narrow blue circle around a white field. Immediately within this circle, running clockwise around the seal from its base is the complete name of the city in Spanish, in a Flat Brush-type font: La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís. Within the circle of lettering is a heraldic “American” shield divided so that the top portion bears on its fly half the principal charge of the arms of Mexico (in a 19th-century version): an eagle with a serpent in its beak perched on a nopal cactus, all in a blue silhouette on white. The hoist half shows a portion of the arms of Spain, a yellow turreted castle in silhouette on a red field on the hoist side, and a silhouetted upright red lion, on the fly side. The lower part of the shield is the modified American blazon, 13 white five-pointed stars (staggered 7 above and 6 below) on dark blue, over 13 vertical stripes (7 red, 6 white). Below the shield is a white heraldic ribbon, edged in blue and folded in thirds. On the three sections appear, in blue: 1610 at the hoist, 1846 in the center, and 1821 at the fly. Emanating from behind the shield in a circle are 85 short gold rays, appearing to be scalloped, since every fifth ray is longer. Several rays are hidden by the shield’s upper corners and the center portion of the heraldic ribbon.