Carthage

Carthage is one of those neighborhoods I haven't spent a lot of time in. When I think of Carthage I think of the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, the taqueria I used to eat at when I lived in Clifton (El Valle Verde), and that controversial "Big Indian" sign at a car dealership (which the Enquirer recently did a story on). I've always grouped Carthage and Hartwell together as the Northern Vine Street neighborhoods, but maybe Carthaginians and Hartwellians would find that offensive.

One thing I noticed in my drive throughs is that Carthage is home to a burgeoning Hispanic community. In fact, as you can see from the sign below, it is the only neighborhood I can think of that has official signs in both English and Spanish.

That sign us gives Carthage a unique (albeit ugly) color combo of red and purple. You can see it repeated in slightly different shades in this logo taken from the community council webpage.

I don't think that logo will work on a flag. It looks like it is for children's vitamins or something. "Championvits: The vitamin that helps kids grow strong, like a champion!"

So even though the Hispanic cultural aspect of the neighborhood is relatively recent, I thought I would work off this because it would be unique for the neighborhood. So I needed symbolism that could work for many different nationalities since it is not just a single nation that people are immigrating to Carthage from. The Spanish language is the obvious commonality so I looked for an old symbol for Spain since there won't be a symbol for a language.

So I came up with this. This is the Cross of Burgundy. It was used as a Spanish naval ensign and land battle flag starting in the 16th century. This version (and the alternate white and red version below) surely flew over North American territories of Spain before the various areas found independence.

Yellow and Red Cross of Burgundy.

White and Red Cross of Burgundy.

Here is a picture from Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Puerto Rico where you see a Cross of Burgundy, the Puerto Rican flag, and the US flag flying together.

Other US flags have referenced this flag, so it isn't a stretch.

The flag of Florida ( a state with a long Spanish history) refernces the C.O.B in their state flag.

And Arizona takes the colors from the yellow and red version to reference their Spanish history.

So my first attempt was to take the C.O.B. and Cincyfy it by changing the color of the cross a bit to Cincinnati Red and adding in some Cincinnati Blue.

FLAG 1

And then making the entire field Cincy Blue

FLAG 2

And then swapping the colors of FLAG 1 to try another style would give.

FLAG 3

Then I tried splitting the cross into red and blue sections to keep the entire field white and got.

FLAG 4

Next I wanted to try to incorporate the red and purple colors of Carthage signs and websites. So using purple for the field and red for the cross because it create an even more solid C.O.B. refernce gives.

FLAG 5