Spain

Spain (スペイン, Supein) is a character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. In 2008, Himaruya gave human names to some of the characters, and he received the name Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (アントーニョ・フェルナンデス・カリエド, Antōnyo Ferunandesu Kariedo), though it may have been originally spelled Antonio Hernandez Carriedo (アントーニョ・ヘルナンデス・カリエド, Antōnyo Herunandesu Kariedo, see "Name" section for details).

Appearance


He has somewhat curly brown hair, green eyes, lightly 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 wearing a bullfighter uniform (from the Children's Day sketch series).

Spain's skintone has alternated between fair and olive.

Personality and Interests
A cheerful country bumpkin, Spain was once a super powerful nation and traveler until he was tormented by England and Netherlands, beaten by a younger America, and thrown into war and poverty. Despite all his hardships, he remained optimistic and passionate. The source of his constant happiness is the sunshine that cast over his land.

Although he means well, he happens to come off as insensitive and clueless at times because of his inability to "read the atmosphere" (it is said that he does not even try to assess the situation). Spain speaks in the Osaka-ben variant of the Kansai dialect in the Japanese version.

He is also very fond of children, especially the Italy brothers. It is shown that his ultimate dream is for both of them to live with him.

Austria
Main Article: Austria

He was conquered by Austria 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 Austria with a wedding ring as he scolds Spain and lets him know that he will not acknowledge bigamy in their household (as Antonio had expressed the interest to marry both Italy and Romano).

The two remained in close contact as allies until the War of the Spanish Succession. Spain would later ally himself with France and Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession.

Belgium
Main Article: Belgium

Their true relationship is as of yet unknown, but Belgium did spend some time in Spain's house, and appears to be fond of a younger South Italy.

France
Main Article: France

The two get along rather well, having grown up and fought in wars together, though Spain remains oblivious to France's more perverted tendencies and cannot see why Romano hates him. It is said in production notes by Himaruya that their relationship is actually undesirable, yet the two remain inseparable. Recently, it seems Spain is aware that France is a bad influence on him, calling him "despicable" before defeating him in The Battle of Garigliano with the help of his pet bull. France's first bird named Pierre is used for communication with him.

South Italy (Romano)
Main Article: South Italy

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

In the years of having raised him, Spain often had difficulty trying to get Romano to do chores, and had wished that he could have acquired Italy instead, due to the younger brother's obedience and "cuteness." He also found Romano'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 Turkey, though their kingdom wound up thrown into debt due to the Ottoman ruler taking over for some time.

After Spain's attempt to trade him for his younger brother, Romano became more bitter and jealous around him. Spain then tried to spoil him in an attempt to show Romano that he still liked him, even in comparison with his brother.Though Spain’s opinion is that Romano should acknowledge him as his “Boss”, it backfired and Romano refuses it, also often curses at him. Spain also had the habit of pulling on and twirling Romano's curl, causing Romano to headbutt him and call him a pervert.

In the Anime
Spain cameos in Episode 01 at the world meeting, asking Russia if he is going to say something to stop the quarreling that is going on. He then makes his official appearance as a young Spain appearing in the Chibitalia segments offering Italy churros in Episode 02, but later in the episode is shown to be one of the other children that bullies the Italy brothers.

Episodes 60-62, Episode 68, and Episode 75-77 adapt Boss Spain's Control of Southern Italy. This shows the time from when Spain firsts aquires Romano to where he begins fighting France and Turkey for Romano.

Name
There is debate over whether his first surname is Fernandez or Hernandez, due to possible mistranslations. 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 (フェルナンデス, Ferunandesu) 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 name, 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 Ferdinand II Of Aragon, and Hernandez comes from "Hernán", like the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. Both are common surnames in Spain. Hernández and Fernández are the native renderings of his name.

Trivia

 * According to a note by Hidekaz Himaruya, Spain 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 Spain might as well have "two faces" like Russia. He also stated in another note that while Spain treated Romano 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 the Spanish Succession.


 * Himaruya stated that Spain 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 Spain that seemed to hint at the Reconquista. Fans speculate that the younger Spain may have represented Castile, or alternatively Aragon (in the case of Castile being a separate character). It originally seemed more likely that he represented Castile due to the above sketch, as well as the Castilian culture being the dominant culture of Spain. In the original webcomic, his boss was also shown to be Joanna of Castile in the Boss Spain strips, whom Himaruya called the Mad Queen. However, in volume 3, Spain was used to represent the Crown of Aragon, throwing doubt on to this theory. In most fanfiction, he is used to represent the entirety of Hispania, especially during its days as a Roman province.