In 1849, Narciso López was with the Cuban exile in New York City carrying out plans for a possible insurrection on the island with the support of the United States. One morning, legend has it that once López got up from his sleep and looking out the window, he saw the colors of the morning dawn in the sky. In the distance he could see "a triangle of red clouds that announced the dawn, and in the triangle shone the star of Venus, the morning star, while two white clouds departed from the triangle to divide the resplendent sky into three blue stripes" .

Excited by what he had just seen, López went to his friend, Miguel Teurbe Tolón, to tell him about it. Apart from this sweetened version that there is no point in denying, what is evidenced by Narciso López's own story is that the flag was inspired in a general way by that of the United States (the expedition to Cuba in 1850 had annexation as its objective). The three blue stripes represent the three departments into which Cuba was divided at that time; the white ones, the purity of ideals, the light; the red triangle, a Freemason motif originating from the French Revolution and the three ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity; the color red, blood and bravery; the star, widespread military symbol, was the new State that should be added to the United States. ​

Miguel Teurbe Tolón was the one who designed the flag for López with the story of his vision, and Emilia Teurbe Tolón, Miguel's wife, was the one who sewed it by hand for the first time. ​ 

On the morning of May 20, 1902, the day of the inauguration of the Republic, Generalissimo Máximo Gómez had the honor of hoisting said flag on the mast of the Castillos de los Tres Reyes del Morro, in Havana, thus sealing with this act the end of the Cuban revolution, of its independence wars and at the same time justifying the sacrifice that so many made to make this dream a reality.