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Marília, São Paulo State (Brazil)

image by Dirk Schönberger, 5 December 2012
Source: http://www.marilia.sp.gov.br/prefeitura/?page_id=361

About the flag
Blue banded flag
Variant with equal stripes

See also:

About the Flag of Marília

Vertically banded red-white-red, 1-2-1, with the coat of arms in the centre.

Official website at http://www.marilia.sp.gov.br/prefeitura.
Dirk Schönberger, 5 December 2012

The municipality of Marília (216,745 inhabitants in 2010; 117,005 ha) is located in central-western São Paulo State, 450 km of São Paulo. The municipality is made of the town of Marilia proper and of the districts of Amadeu Amaral (147 inh.), Avencas (635 inh.), Dirceu (122 inh.), Lácio (959 inh.), Padre Nóbrega (4,004 inh.) and Rosália (2,200 inh.). Marília is known as the "National Capital of Food". Its business park houses some 1,100 companies involved in food (Nestlé, Marilan, Dori), steel-making, construction (Sasazaki), textile, graphic and plastic industries. TAM, today the main airline in Brazil and South America, was founded in 1961 in Marília by ten young pilots, as "Taxi Aéreo de Marilia". Marília is the birth town of the swimmer Tetsuo Okamoto (1932-2007), bronze medalist at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki (1500m freestyle), the first Brazilian swimmer to win a medal at the Olympics.

The symbols of Marília are prescribed in Article 2.1 of the Municipal Constitution, adopted on 4 April 1990 and last amended on 26 June 2012, as "the flag, the anthem and the coat of arms, representative of its culture and history". Articles 2.3 and 2.4, added on 26 June 2012, say that the official colours of the municipality are "red and white", and that any modification of the symbols should be submitted to a referendum (those two paragraphs are a straightforward consequence of the Decision of the Court that nullified the change in the symbols prescribed in 2005 - see below.)

http://www.marilia.sp.gov.br/prefeitura/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Lei_Organica.pdf - Municipal Constitution

The flag of Marília was originally prescribed by Municipal Law No. 2251, adopted in 1978. Red represents coffee while white represents cotton.

The red stripes were changed to blue stripes by Municipal Law No. 6,230 of 23 March 2005. According to the Mayor, Mário Bulgarelli, and to the Municipal Councillor Eduardo Nascimento, President of the Commission of Historical Registers, the colour was hung to blue to match the colour of the Marília Atlético Clube, the town football club; Nascimento added that 80% of the population of the town consider that blue is the colour of Marília.

Jefferson Aparecido Dias, a citizen of Marília and also the Procurator of the Republic, appealed the flag change to the São Paulo Justice Court, arguing that the change in the colours is a fait accompli that was imposed to the population without any consultation. On 16 March 2010, the Court nullified the Law that had changed the flag and ordered the reestablishment of the original flag (with red stripes) as the sole official flag of the town. The Court stated that a municipal symbol, base on heraldic and historical research, could not be changed by a simple Law reflecting personal preferences of the administrators of the time.
http://www.conjur.com.br/2010-mai-10/tj-sao-paulo-determina-bandeira-marilia-volte-cor-original - Mayara Barreto, "Consultor Jurídico", 10 May 2012
http://www.correiomariliense.com.br/materia.php?materia=4354 - "Correio Mariliense", 13 May 2010 http://s.conjur.com.br/dl/decisao-tj-sao-paulo-relacao-cor.pdf - Court Decision

The flag hoisted in the town has red stripes, but of the same width as the central white stripe.

http://antonioguilherme.net/fotos/?p=3290 http://noroestino.blogspot.fr/2010/07/hauhuahuahuahuhauhauhuahuahuhauhuahuaha.html http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o634/Moraes_Campos/SDC12952_800x600.jpg

Photo of the flag with blue stripe:
http://www.aipomesp.com.br/images/9reg_marilia_bandeiras.jpg (blue stripes)

Ivan Sache, 26 January 2013

Blue banded flag

image located by Eugene Ipavec, 18 October 2006
Source: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADlia

This variant was reported on Wikipedia several years ago. (see explanation above)

Variant with equal stripes

image by Ivan Sache, 26 January 2013