The coat of arms of La Rioja, an Argentine province, takes advantage of the entity's largest natural monument: Cerro General Belgrano. It also refers to the Inca god of the sun, who symbolizes freedom.
The development of the province began to gain momentum from the beginning of the 20th century, despite having been colonized by the Spanish since the 16th century.
That is why there is information on various shields and flags from the first decades of the 1800s, passing and alternating between iterations, until reaching the provincial symbols used today.
The departments of the province used their own shields for official communications and these were dissimilar to each other.
Although they were legal for each department, the province lacked a unique image, given the different versions used between departments over time.
History
Created properly in 1892, the coat of arms was used in parallel to others based on copies of other shields, with some modifications.
The consensus on using the current coat of arms did not occur until almost 30 years later, when an official coat of arms was requested from the province to include it in the book Geography of the Argentine Republic, published by the national government.
The governor of La Rioja for that date, the engineer Benjamín Rincón, sent a facsimile of the current shield for publication: this was the first step in making the shield official as part of the symbols of the province.
Five years later, the coat of arms was made official by law number 421 of the Chamber of Deputies of La Rioja, dated July 5, 1926. Since then, this has been the official coat of arms of the province.
Meaning
The mountain and the sun refer to two important symbols, both from Argentina and the province.
The mountain represents the Nevado de Famatina, properly called Cerro General Belgrano, which is the most important mountain in La Rioja and is located in the center of the province.
It is the highest extra Andean mountain (not belonging to the Andes) in America, and it is located exactly at the geographic coordinates of 29 ° 00′51 ″ S, 67 ° 49′58 ″ W.
The Sun of May is one of the great Argentine emblems. It refers to Inti, the Inca god of the sun, and symbolizes freedom.
It is called "May" for the week of that month in 1810, in which the independence movements began to separate the viceroyalty of La Plata from the Spanish monarchy.
In addition to these two symbols, the shield is surrounded by two olive branches, which symbolize peace.
These branches are united in their lower part by albicelestes ribbons, which represent the Argentine national colors and are present in the national flag.
References
- Taringa - The meaning of the shield of all Argentine provinces: taringa.net
- Culture of La Rioja - Provincial Symbols: culturacasadelarioja.blogspot.com
- La Rioja de Todos - Coat of Arms of La Rioja: larioja.gov.ar
- Wikipedia - La Rioja Province, Argentina: en.wikipedia.org