Some swear the Zavala flag never flew—that Lorenzo de Zavala’s design is a persistent myth.
Really? Let's look at the evidence.
On March 2, 1836, Texas delegates declared independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos. A committee of five, all signers of the Texas Declaration, was chosen to design a flag. On May 11, they adopted Zavala’s creation: an elegant banner for a fledgling republic.
Zavala, a Spanish-born statesman who served as Mexico’s Treasury Secretary, Minister to Paris, and Governor of Yucatan, had cast his lot with Texas, lending prestige to the cause. Diarist William Fairfax Gray, who shared a room with Zavala at the convention, called him "the most interesting man in Texas."
The flag was no afterthought.
Colonel James Fannin, before his capture and execution at Goliad, pleaded: “Give us a flag to fight under, as unlike theirs as possible... to hoist in defiance of Santa Anna.” Zavala’s design answered that call.
More evidence cements its legacy.
Toribio Reyes, a San Jacinto captive who escaped and made his way home, told Mexico’s government:
“The enemy carried two flags: one with the America (woman) painted white with a blue ribbon, the other all blue with a big star in the middle and many little ones, all white.”
In the heat of battle, the flag’s letters could seem like stars.
Then there's Crockett's Texas Oldmanick published at Philadelphia by Turner & Fisher in late 1836. A comical illustration within its pages shows Sam Houston addressing his troops with the Zavala flag waving in the breeze. This is the earliest known depiction of a Texas flag.
