Santo Domingo.– Vice President Raquel Peña together with First Lady Raquel Arbaje, presented this Wednesday respect and salute to the National Flag in a colorful ceremony held on the steps of the National Palace as part of the celebration of the 179th anniversary of National Independence.
In the solemn act at 8:00 in the morning, the vice president received the military honors of style with a 21-gun salute and the intonation of the glorious notes of the National Anthem by the First Regiment of the Presidential Guard.
After pronouncing a few words, the vice president said she was proud to pay homage to the National Flag and the patriotic symbols.
“Today is a very special day for us to pay tribute to our national flag and patriotic symbols. For me it is a great pride and a great honor to represent our president, Luis Abinader, in this act to our tricolor flag, our Dominican flag, in the National Palace, “said Peña.
Peña urged Dominicans to work for and for the Homeland as Patricio Juan Pablo Duarte did.
He quoted the famous phrase of Juan Pablo Duarte “Let’s work for and for the country, which is to work for our children, – and added that also for our grandchildren -, and for ourselves.”
Citing Duarte’s phrase, he said that this is what President Abinader is doing, working tirelessly to guarantee a better country and a better quality of life for all the Dominican people.
He urged Dominicans to honor the symbols not only in the month of February but every day.
“We have to feel proud every day, whether it is using a flag on our clothes, at home or in the company, every day we have to go out to work, do our own thing, with patriotic pride for the benefit of our homeland and of all Dominicans,” added the vice president.
For his part, the president of the Permanent Commission of National Ephemerides, Juan Pablo Uribe, highlighted the solemnity that the Flag represents as a national identity based on the history of struggle of the Dominican people.
Subsequently, Uribe presented Vice President Raquel Peña with the National Flag and the National Shield in thread-like art.
The act was closed with the interpretation of the complete National Anthem performed by cadets from the different military corps of the Ministry of Defense in a choral declamation led by Brigadier General Servio Antonio Uribe Vizcaino, ERD.
The act was attended by employees from the different areas of the government house who carried pennants in homage to the national identity.
National flag
The first National Flag was made by several Dominican women, including Concepción Bona,
Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Isabel Sosa and Maria de Jesus Pina.
It waved gracefully for the first time on February 27, 1844, the day National Independence was declared.
The colors of the National Flag have a patriotic meaning; red represents the blood spilled by our liberators; blue expresses that God protects the Dominican nation and in the center the National shield with a white cross that is the symbol of the struggle of our liberators to bequeath us a free and independent homeland from all foreign powers.
«How beautiful you are at the top, Dominican flag! Whoever saw you, whoever saw you higher up, much more”, fragment of the poetry of the writer Fernándo Deligne in honor of the flag.
