The Portuguese Republic - Portugal



Fernando da Costa Aguiar is a fan-made character for the series Hetalia - The Beautiful World. He is the representation of Portugal.

Appearance
He has dark brown shoulder length hair,  with a short fringe and tied in a ponytail. The eyes are light blue, and he has a vertical scar over the left eye wich was recieved during the great earthquake of 1755. He has olive skin and usually wears a white shirt over darker pants and boots or shoes. He often wears traditional clothing from diferent regions of his country and during Carnaval festivities he can dress up either as a woman (matrafona) or with typical colourful costumes and rustic wooden/metal iberian masks (careto).

Personality and interests
The oldest country and one of the oldest nations in Europe, Fernando once held the biggest and longest global empire in history that was lost through a series of unfortunate events and was eventually forgoten by most. Extremly proud of his past glory and sure that the hability to accomplish great deeds runs in his genes, he faithfully hopes for the day he will rise back up to his former self. He also believes that his missing king D.Sebastian the I whose disappearing iniciated the falling of the empire, will return one day, when the country is in dire need, to guide the country and raise it up once more.

Adventurous, curious, cheerful and friendly to most he is said to be able to make anyone feel at home right away. Though he can also be rude for being rather blunt and saying what first comes on his mind. Honesty is another characteristic that defines him as well as hard-work. He may be lazy when he looses interest but when he wants to accomplish something no one stops him. He is kindhearted by nature though sometimes not always lets it show. When he dislikes someone or something he doesn't hide it either. Treasures friends and family above everything and cherishes the traditions and everything about his country - main cause of why he suffers of saudade (an intense feeling of longing or missing someone or something) Due to this, he can get easily depressed over a variety of things but, in contradiction there's also many things that can easily cheer him up.

He's interested in art, music and arquitecture essentially (specially if the arquitecture emphasizes his culture and history). Fado besides meaning destiny, is also a traditional type of portuguese music played with a portuguese guitar and accompanied by a singer. Singing Fado can be a way of putting saudade into music.

Sports also have his dedication mainly football, horse riding and anything related to the sea. Agriculture and livestock are two other matters that Fernando considers like a hobbie.

As a country that has been suffering economically for some time now, he's an expert of availing everything he can make use of. He's a great appreciator of food, his own mostly, for he guarantees there is no food better then his. He uses codfish in a large number of dishes. He's very protective of what is important to him, that includes interests and individuals.

He can also be somewhat stubborn and has trouble to admit his mistakes at first. He also doesnt take critiques from anyone but himself.

Arthur Kirkland (England)
Together with Arthur he has the oldest alliance in the world. Through history they helped each other mutually but in many ocasions Fernando was badly impaired in helping Arthur mainly during the Napoleonic wars, Arthur's betrayal in the Pink Map and several robberies from Portugal during the piracy time. Aside this the two remained close friends until today. Fernando can be considered the only real friend Arthur has. Fernando was also the one who introduced tea to Arthur and taught him how to drink it at 5'o clock, wich later became known as the English Tea Time though everybody is unaware of that ritual's origins. Arthur is also a great fan of Fernando's cuisine and specially the wines. He also goes often to Portugal to spend vacation since Fernando is rich in sun and has loving beaches something Arthur lacks badly back in England. Arthur likes to go to Algarve, in the south, though he enjoys to travel a little all over Portugal. Fernando always welcomes him when he does so.

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo (Spain)
Fernando's younger brother that through history gave him alot of trouble from constantly trying to unite both countries. After Fernando became an official country their relation became pretty much agressive resulting in inumerous wars and battles. During the discovery age, the two iberian brothers had the world split into two, a part belonging to Spain, and another to Portugal. When the king of Portugal, D.Sebastian misteriously disapeared, Antonio finally saw his chance to take over since the country had no longer a king. The two countries were then, united for 60 years, and it was during this union that great part, if not most of Fernando's empire collapsed. Fernando eventually rebelled out and gained back his independence. Nowadays they are less competitive and less bitter with each other and though a small rivalry can be noticed from time to time it can be said, comparing to their past relation, that they're actually friendly.

Macau
Macau was under Fernando's care for 446 years. Much like a big brother Fernando raised him and so, their proximity is great. Macau admires Fernando and has him as an example. His culture differs from the rest of China's due to the strong portuguese influence. Portuguese is still spoken in Macau nowadays and Macau was the last portuguese colony only being delivered to China in 1999. Fernando always cherished Macau and besides spoiling him he was overly protective of him. Today they remain as close, acting more like brothers, then Fernando would act with Antonio.

Kiku Honda (Japan)
Their relation may can be classified as close friends. Fernando was the first european to meet Kiku and opened a new door to him seeing that he only knew other asian countries like him. Fernando taught many things to Kiku, despite the latter being much more older. Fernando showed Kiku firearms, types of food that Kiku later adopted, words, games, songs, a new type of education, for Fernando opened the first university in Japan, the fact that the world was round and many other things. Kiku quickly became affectionate of the enthusiastic latin and they stayed very close until Netherlands and other countries started pressuring him for tradding matters and he ended up closing himsef again. Together Fernando and Kiku founded Nagasaki.

Lukas Bondevik (Norway)
Fernando is the biggest buyer of Lukas' fish. So it can be said, that for a long time now, they have been doing business together. With Fernando being the world's number one consumer of codfish (as well as other fishes) that come all from Norway. So they are more then familiar with each other.

Trivia

 * The date of his birthday corresponds to the day of the Treaty of Zamora's signature that made official the foundation of Portugal ( at that time Portucale) as a country at October 5th of 1143. Ironically enough, many centuries after, again at October 5th, the monarchy fell and the Republic proclaimed, intiating  the Portuguese Republic.
 * July 25th is the Portugal's day, where the country itself is celebrated though it has no historical fundament.
 * The great earthquake of November 1st of 1755 that followed by a tsunami, and a huge fire that lasted days, was considered by many a punishment from God or some sort of curse and completly changed the mentality of it's time all over Europe. The earthquake also enters in the list of the strongest earthquakes in history.