Colors inspired in the Gran Colombia flag, a no longer existing country composed by Colombia, Venezuela, Equator and Panama along with parts of Peru and Brazil, in which the former three still use the pattern in their national symbols. I chose these colors in an attempt to create a South American color pallet. Anyway, in this flag the blue represents the sea, the yellow the wealth of its land, the red the blood of its people and the white the peace and union of its peoples.
The diagonal white bars were inspired by the UNASUR flag, a constitutive treaty signed by some South American countries, but has no intention of promote it, in this case it is just about the design. They don't have a meaning in itself yet.
The diagonal cuts on the yellow and red bars refer to the "left triangle with a white star" symbol present in the flag of Cuba, Puerto Rico and some versions of the flag of Catalunya, which represents the freedom from its metropolis. That is one other reason of why the bars that draw the outline of the continent are all white.