Spain

(This page is a work in progress, as are all the other individual character pages. Please add or remove anything you must!)

Spain is a supporting character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Since most of the other characters were receiving official human names from the years 2007 to 2008, Spain was given one as well; Antonio Fernández Carriedo (though he's sometimes known as Antonio Hernández Carriedo due to some confusion during the Japanese-to-Spanish translation).

Appearance
Full Artice: Uniform Guide: Spain

Spain is one of the darker European nations featured in Hetalia, having dark brown hair, tanned skin (the tone of which tends to vary), and green eyes. His appearance is said to be that of a stereotypical Spaniard's, with clear-cut features and a seemingly unshakable happiness. His hair is slightly curly and has been stated as very stylish despite his probably not paying much attention to it. His choice military outfit consists of tan trousers with puttees wrapped below his knee level, and a matching jacket with sleeves rolled up at least three-quarters of the way down his arms. He also wears shorter brown boots and a length of brown cloth around his collar, tied into a bow shape.

Character Summary
Known to most fans as amicable and passionate, yet at times a bit too laid-back, Spain can be described as a cheerful country with a mysterious aura of conflicting light and darkness. He’s generally friendly and good-natured when it comes to interacting with others and his country is said to have one of the lowest-rate sales of dating advice books. He likes to take life at his own pace and makes no attempt to “read the atmosphere”, sometimes going as far as coming off insensitive and/or clueless. His being the “Kingdom of where the sun never sets” seems to apply to his character as well. However, if you are to get him angry or drunk, it would be best to keep your distance; a strategy he normally wouldn’t mind you applying. He hasn’t (and probably still won’t) changed with the times, either. It has been stated by Himaruya that he is two-faced like Russia, being nice to Romano, yet strict to his other colonies.

He’s shown to have a very special place in his heart for his friends, especially the Italy brothers, to the point where it’s been revealed that one of his biggest fantasies was having the two children live with him. Nowadays, he seems to try and maintain a good relationship with most of the other nations with the possible exceptions of America, England and the Netherlands, who are all shown not to be very fond of him in turn likely due to past grudges stemming from his pirate age and Netherlands' forceful independence.

In the earlier times, Spain grew up in the Roman Empire along with nations such as France, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. He was one of the faster to mature out of them and went to war over Italy with Austria soon after Rome's dissolution and death. His efforts meant that he was eventually given the custody of the southern half of Italy, being Italy Romano, and lead him spend quite a bit of effort and money on spoiling him rather than treating him as a proper henchman. As such, his desire to be called "Boss" fell flat. He raised South Italy in his house along with Belgium and the Netherlands. He lost custody of Netherlands after his forceful independence, and South Italy when Italy was unified. Belgium does not appear to have left him as forcefully as the others, but did nonetheless. Spain was also once a very powerful kingdom and sat among the strongest of the pirate nations. Because of this, he was one of the nations to voyage back and forth from the New World several times to set up colonies and bring back riches and introduced many things to the other European nations at around this time. However, his golden period came to an end with the interventions of England, The Netherlands, and even the younger America. They tossed him straight into an era plagued by war, poverty and debt for quite a while that factored heavily into his not participating in WWII.

Some Spanish stereotypes he portray include: his passionate and easygoing attitude, his love for tomatoes, his affinity for animals such as turtles and bulls, his laid-back lifestyle, etc.

Austria
Before the Italian Wars, Austria had conquered Spain, and they were later on married within the House of Hapsburg. Austria was also the one who handed custody of Romano (South Italy) over to Spain, but he still refused any proposals to take him back or possibly exchange his northern half for Spain's. They stayed on relatively close military terms as allies until the time of the War of Spanish Succession. He later on also allied himself with Prussia and France  against Austria during the War of Austrian Succession.

Belgium
Belgium became a lasting member of Spain's household along with her brother the Netherlands, when the Burgundian-Hapsburgs took acquisition of the crown of Spain. She was revealed to have stayed and even fought alongside Spain while her brother became independent. She always seemed to get along with Spain much better than Netherlands does, often opting to help them out or enjoy food together. They can be seen together with Romano enjoying meals and doing household chores, but only in a friendly manner. They can sometimes be depicted as a family situation by fans, acting as the parental figures to a younger Romano.

In the 2010 Christmas Event, while being attacked by Parallel Spain, Belgium managed to stop him by offering him her scarf. He then proceeded to fall in love with her, though she doesn’t appear to have noticed his relation to Spain and simply mistook him for a drunk.

Belgium and Spain are a rather popular pairing, going by the names "SpaBel" or "オレンジワッフル (Orenjiwaffuru)".

England
In the late-1500's, England grew envious of Spain's power and decided to use his pirates to dethrone him. Whenever Spain complained about his troubles, unbeknownst to his actions. Whenever Spain expressed his troubles with the pirates, England gave the false excuse that the pirates were giving him trouble as well. However, when Spain came back to protest one day, he saw England giving an award ceremony for the work of the privateers. England managed to personally sink Spain's Armada at one point, too, effectively beating him up so badly that it led to his demise, and Spain was forced to give up his seat of power to England.

They are occasionally paired together as "SpUK ", though this pairing is constantly outshone by modern day pairings. It's more common to see them paired together during their pirate days.

France
Spain gets along rather well with France, having grown up and fought together with him, though Spain always remained oblivious to France's more perverted tendencies and can't understand why most other nations hate him. Himaruya has described their relationship as an undesirable one, yet the two of them still remain inseparable. In the past they were shown together often, such as when Spain was constantly protecting Romano from France, and how France would go to lengths to try and cheer Spain up when he was down. It seems Spain is aware that France is a very bad influence, going as far as to heatedly call him "despicable" before his pet bull defeated him in the Battle of Garigliano. But they still seem to have a good relationship together nowadays and share many moments together in the webcomic, some going as far as being considered as semi-canonical. France normally uses one of his pet birds, a dove named Pierre, to communicate with Spain.

They are a surprisingly popular ship, going by the name "France/Spain", but it is normally outdone by more popular ships such as Spamano and FrUK.

Italy
Spain seems to have a special place in his heart for both of the Italy brothers, with his affection toward North Italy seeming to stem from his “cuteness”. He affectionately calls Italy “Ita-chan” in the original Japanese text, and Italy returns notion by calling Spain “Big Brother” (it is unknown if they’re related as brothers; but at the same time this is not impossible). Spain was revealed to fantasize about living and possibly marrying both brothers when they were both still children, to which Italy expressed his distaste by refusing go with him and running back to Austria in tears. Despite his wanting both halves of Italy under his care, Spain seemed to have liked North Italy better than South Italy for some amount of time, going to visit him at Austria’s house and bringing him churros and tomatoes. He even attempted to trade South Italy for North Italy since he was a more obedient and cuter worker, but seems to have changed his mind after realizing how badly his actions may have affected Romano’s feelings.

Monaco
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Monaco was a member of Spain’s household. Due to Spain continuously doing her favors she didn’t wish him for, their relationship eventually took a turn for the more sour. Nowadays, their current relationship is unknown, though it’s assumed they have little contact with the possibility of encountering one another due to their mutual relationships with France.

Netherlands
Along with Belgium, Netherlands joined Spain as a part of his household for a certain amount of time, although he did not make an effort to befriend him. Their relationship worsened to the point where Spain began to genuinely believe that Netherlands hated him. He would normally avoid being around and eating with even his sister Belgium is it meant Spain would be there too. Eventually, Netherlands alone became independent from Spain by beating him up in hope of being recognized, unable to spur Belgium on to do the same thing.

Even while at war, Netherlands offered to sell Spain weapons that would surely be used against him for money. Also, on one Christmas after promising Belgium to bring her Santa Claus, Netherlands came to her house with Spain dressed in a Santa suit slung over his shoulder. Also, during the 2010 Christmas Event, they could be seen together, though Netherlands did try to bluntly tell Spain to go home. They still defended one another from the parallel nations threatening them, however, and woke up in a strange position, causing Netherlands to comment with “What the hell? This sucks".

They make up a mildly popular pairing within the fandom, going by "NethSpa (or one of many other variations of this name)", "オセロコン (Oserokonbii)" or "蘭西 (Ranishi)".

Prussia
Although Spain and Prussia are not shown together much in the webcomic, manga or anime, fans usually picture them together as friends, along with France. He also stood on the same side of Prussia during the War of Austrian Succession, and supported him against Austria and England.

South Italy (Romano)
Spain and Romano seem to have grown up together in the Roman Empire during the earlier days, but after the dissolution of Rome, Spain (who had grown and matured much quicker than Romano had) went to war against Austria over who would take Italy (being, the Italian Wars). Austria eventually won custody of Italy, and handed the southern half over to Spain, to which he was initially overjoyed. Excited to be a boss, Spain returned to find that the nation he had to take care of now was exceptionally lazy and disobedient. However, he refused to give him up until he saw how cute Romano’s brother Veneziano (North Italy) was and begged for Austria to “trade Italies” with him, in a sense, to which he was blatantly refused. He later on felt bad about wanting to do this and tried to formally apologize to Romano, only to learn about his problems with using toilets. Later on, it was shown that Spain doted on Romano a fairly large amount, spoiling him with new clothes and good food, cleaning his room for him and generally treating him well. Romano was shown to have secretly appreciated this (despite insisting he hated him, and claiming Spain made his life terrible) and liking to show off how he could be a good kid by harvesting tomatoes for him and trying to defend Spain from German troops whom he thought were attacking. Also, when Romano left to go to his own house, Spain went as far as to follow him in secret to make sure Romano would not be captured or hurt along the way. This resulted in Romano finding out and running away, only to be captured by Turkey. Spain fought to protect him for a long time, giving away the money he so needed just to keep his henchman safe.

Nowadays, after the unification of Italy, Spain and South Italy can still be seen together quite often and are shown to support each other. In 2005, when Spain came around claiming same-sex marriage was now legal, he seems to have proposed to Romano. The proposal was apparently accepted. Another request for Spain pranking Romano included Romano silently wondering about why Spain wasn’t there yet, as he would normally be early. During an economic crisis Spain was facing that left him bed-ridden and in danger of dying, Romano went on a “quest” to try and return him to good health. However, after all his hard work, he returned to find Spain had recovered after his people adapted the euro as their currency.

Their pairing, being known as "Spamano" or "親分子分 (Oyabun Kobun)", can easily top the most popular pairings of Hetalia.

AU (Alternate Universe) Versions
'NOTE: A great deal of the information surrounding the AU versions of this character are purely fanon ideas - headcanons, if you will. Little official information has been given on the alternate universes; please do not believe any of the details not stated to be confirmed as canon to be official.’’’’

Nyotalia/Genderswapped (Nyo!)
Read more on the alternative versions of South Italy, listed or not listed below, at Memes in fandom

Character Songs
Marukaite Chiyuu (Spain)

Hatafutte Parade (Spain)

La Pasión No Se Detiene~Tomaranai Jounetsu