INTERPRETING THE COAT OF ARMS OF RIOBAMBA CITY THROUGH HERALDIC AND EMBLEMATICS

Abstract

The hermeneutical exercise on the Riobamba coat of arms has brought together historians, chroniclers, and municipal authorities, among them Pedro Traversari, designer of the current Ecuadorian coat of arms. Given the scarcity of authentic documents, this author undertook the reconstruction of the arms based on the tradition and the narratives of the historians Juan de Velasco and González Suárez. For this reason, in the corresponding blazoning he concludes that there is "at the bottom - the head of the dead Lutheran." This description originated a controversy among Riobamba’s population, regarding the preservation of this emblem as an element of identity. The main goal of this study is to emblazon the coat of arms of Riobamba using Forensic Heraldry as a tool for its diachronic historical analysis. The inductive method was applied because conclusions were drawn from observation. As the main result, the configuration of this heraldic emblem was based on criteria of conformation, identification and modes of meaning, and a reading complementary to the current myth was provided.