Spain

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (アントーニョ・フェルナンデス・カリエド, Antoonyo Ferunandesu Kariedo) is a character in the series, Axis Powers Hetalia/Hetalia: Axis Powers. He is the representation of the country, Spain (スペイン, Supein).

Appearance


He has somewhat curly brown hair, green eyes, tanned skin, and wears a khaki-colored uniform with 3/4-length sleeves. He is often depicted with his favorite food, tomatoes. In the profile image at the right, he is depicted in a bullfighter uniform (from the Children's Day sketch series).

While Antonio's skintone is often tan, he is also shown to be depicted with fair skin in other images.

Personality And Interests
A cheerful country bumpkin, Antonio was once a super powerful nation and traveler until he was tormented by Arthur and Netherlands, beat up by a younger Alfred, and cast into war and poverty. Despite all his hardships, he remained optimistic and passionate. The source of his constant happiness is the sunshine that's cast over his land.

Although he means well, Antonio happens to come off as insensitive and clueless at times due to his inability to "read the atmosphere" (it is said that he does not even try to assess the situation). But it is suggested that he may in fact have "two faces." He speaks in the Osaka-ben variant of the Kansai dialect.

He is also very fond of children, especially both of the Italy brothers. It is shown that his ultimate dream is for both of them to live with him, and he had also expressed interest in marrying them when they were younger.

Lovino Vargas (South Italy/Romano)
Main Article: Lovino Vargas

Antonio is rather affectionate to Lovino, having raised him from the time he was a child and under his rule. As a result, Lovino takes after him in his culture and customs.

In the years of having raised him, Antonio often had difficulty trying to get Lovino to do chores, and had wished that he could have acquired Feliciano instead, due to the younger brother's obedience and "cuteness." He also found Lovino's frequent bed-wetting and harsh attitude to be annoying, though he eventually wound up having to bail him out when he was kidnapped by Sadiq, though their kingdom wound up thrown into debt due to the Ottoman ruler taking over for some time.

Francis Bonnefoy (France)
Main Article: Francis Bonnefoy

The two get along rather well, having grown up and fought in wars together, though Antonio remains oblivious to Francis's more perverted tendencies and cannot see why Lovino hates him. It is said in production notes by Himaruya that their relationship is actually undesirable, yet the two remain inseperable. Francis's bird Pierre is used for communication with him.

Roderich Edelstein (Austria)
Main Article: Roderich Edelstein

He was conquered by Roderich before the Italian Wars, and became part of the Habsburg family through an arranged marriage. A strip in Comic Diary 9 even references this marriage, depicting Roderich with a wedding ring as he scolds Antonio and lets him know that he will not acknowledge bigamy in their household (as Antonio had expressed the interest to marry both Feliciano and Lovino).

The two remained in close contact as allies until the War Of Spanish Succession. Antonio would later ally himself with Francis and Gilbert for the War Of Austrian Succession.

In The Anime
Antonio first shows up in Episode 01 at the world meeting, and asks Ivan if he's going to say something to stop the quarreling that is going on. He later appears in Episode 10, in a flashback to when Arthur defeated his armada. Francis subsequently arrives and begins to beat him up by hitting him on the head repeatedly with a stick.

Antonio later shows up in Episode 14, as the cashier at a busy supermarket. In Episode 33 he shows up as the owner of a cafe, offering the customer instant coffee, as it is all he has due to the economy being bad.

The younger version of Antonio appears in the Chibitalia segments in Episode 02 and Episode 04. In the segment in Episode 02, he offers Chibitalia churros, but later is shown to be one of the other children that bullies both Italy brothers. In Episode 04, a depressed Antonio tells Chibitalia to do everything he likes while he still can (as the Italian Wars approach). The older version of Antonio shows up in Episode 22, when he declares that he will back Austria up. He has also appeared recently in Episode 60, when he claims custody of Lovino (South Italy/Romano).

Antonio's Marukaite Chikyuu will be released on the Hetalia: Fan Disk on May 25, 2010.

Trivia

 * According to a note by Hidekaz Himaruya, Antonio was only originally going to speak in the Kansai dialect whenever he was excited or around people that were close to him. In addition, Himaruya also revealed that Antonio might as well have "two faces" like Ivan. He also stated in another note that while Antonio treated Lovino kindly, he was stern to his other colonies. Himaruya himself wondered why Spain was "historically stuck on Italy" that much, as it was stuck spending so much money to protect it and struggled to try to get it back after losing it in the War Of Spanish Succession.


 * Himaruya stated that Antonio was also based off a friend of his, which inspired him to give him the Kansai dialect. In addition, it is said that all of the Spanish-language nations will speak in some variant of Kansai. Though Belgium is not one of them, she speaks in the Shiga-ben variant, presumably since she used to be one of Spain's territories.


 * A separate character for Castile was originally planned as Spain's older sister, but it is speculated that Himaruya may have forgotten about this idea, as he later drew a child version of Antonio that seemed to hint at the Reconquista. Fans speculate that the younger Antonio may have represented Castile, or alternatively Aragon (in the case of Castile being a separate character). It seems to be more likely that he represented Castile, as the Castilian culture and language makes up most of Spain, as well as his boss having been shown to be Joanna of Castile in the Boss Spain strips. In most fanfiction, he is used to represent the entirety of Hispania, especially during its days as a Roman province.
 * There is debate over whether his first surname is Fernandez or Hernandez. When Himaruya first gave him a human name, the katakana resembled the characters for the latter more (ヘルナンデス, Herunandesu), though it later appeared with the kana for "Fernandez" and became Romanized as such. It is unclear if this is due to a mistake by a fan or if Himaruya later spelled the name differently, though there is a noticeable debate over which spelling is the correct one in both the Western and Eastern fandom. Japanese fanworks often use either one, while international fanworks tend to use "Fernandez" more often. The slight difference becomes more apparent as Fernandez is a patronimic that comes from the first name "Fernando" like the Spanish King Fernando Of Aragon (Ferdinand II Of Aragon, husband to Isabella of Castilla as the Catholic Kings), and Hernandez comes from "Hernán", like the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Both are common surnames in Spain.