Flag of New Mexico

What the flag shows

• The yellow field. With the red of the sun symbol, these are what the law calls the colors of old Spain. The secretary of state traces them to Isabel of Castile.
• The Zia sun symbol. The statute calls it the “ancient Zia sun symbol.” It was taken from the sun design on a late-1800s water jar from Zia Pueblo.
• Four groups of four rays. Set at right angles, they reflect the sacred number four of the Zia: the four directions, the four seasons, the four parts of the day (sunrise, noon, evening and night) and the four stages of life (childhood, youth, adulthood and old age).
• The circle. In Zia teaching, the circle of life, with no beginning and no end.

The law fixes the proportions: the flag is two-thirds as wide as it is long, the sun symbol is one-third of the flag’s length, the two inner rays of each group are one-fifth longer than the outer ones, and the center circle is one-third as wide as the symbol.

The first flag

New Mexico’s first state flag, from 1915, was designed by the historian Ralph Emerson Twitchell. It had a blue field with a small US flag in the upper corner by the staff, the state seal in the lower corner at the fly, and “New Mexico” embroidered diagonally across it.

The 1923 contest

In 1920 the New Mexico chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution pushed for a flag that reflected the state’s own character, and in 1923 it held a design contest. The winner was Dr. Harry P. Mera, a Santa Fe physician and archaeologist, and his wife, Reba, sewed the winning flag. In March 1925 Governor Arthur T. Hannett signed the law that made Mera’s design the official state flag.

Salutes in two languages

New Mexico has an official salute to its flag in English, adopted in 1963: “I salute the flag of the state of New Mexico, the Zia symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures.” In 1973 it added a Spanish salute: “Saludo la bandera del estado de Nuevo Mejico, el simbolo zia de amistad perfecta, entre culturas unidas.” A 2025 law says a worn-out state flag may be retired in a dignified way, preferably by burning, at a public or private ceremony.

Zia Pueblo’s view

The sun symbol belongs to Zia Pueblo, and the pueblo has long objected to how it came to be on the flag. Tribal leaders say the state never asked the pueblo’s permission to use its sacred symbol, and that the pottery it was copied from had been taken out of the pueblo. The pueblo has sought compensation without success, including $45 million in 1994; a 1999 House bill proposing $74 million did not pass. In 2014 a Senate memorial asked the state’s Department of Cultural Affairs to report on who has the right to use the Zia symbol. The pueblo’s position is that people should ask its permission before using the symbol.