⭑. 𓆝⠀˖ . 𓇼 ‧ ₊˚

welcome to hetaberia week 2026 ! ⠀[ 🐚 ] ⠀ an event dedicated to spain & portugal ! event: july 13-19 ! vámonos !

[hetaberia-week]

it's prompt o'clock ! ⠀ ⭑. [ 🐚 ] ⠀˖ . 𓇼 ‧ ₊˚ ⋅

july 13 - july 19 :

rivalry, living together, fairy tales

separated, royalty, domestic fluff

ceramics & pottery, witches, opposites

arranged marriage, mafia, bookstore

mistaken identity, piracy, wine

forbidden love, archaeology, nightclub

childhood memories, cardverse, travel

+ a free day token for you to use on any day!

not too sure how to tackle a day's prompts? or any prompts? no worries! use this token to make any day your free day! just be sure to tag the work with the #free day token tag so we know ;)

we can't wait to get started! happy creating!

[ @hetaliahappenings & @hetaliacalendar ]

[kiwisbocetos]

Day 2: Seperated // @hetaberia-week

I'm so glad late submissions are accepted lol!

For this one how about we talk about the separation of the New World between Portugal and Spain lol.

[I'm also using lyrics from the Siamese Cat Song! It has it's issues for sure but I can twist enough of the lyrics to make it a proper song for the invasion of the Americas jaja!]

1493; Spain and Portugal agreed to split the New World and turn to the Pope to ask how they should do so. (Both highly Catholic countries running to South Italy about how they should split the cookie lol)

Pope Alexander VI (born in Spain) wrote down a line 320 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands (owned by Portugal) and anything on the West was fair game to Spain and anything to the East was fair game for Portugal.

At a first glance this does seem highly unfair but this was the New World! No one knew what it looked like! They had really no idea that Portugal was only getting a crumb of the cookie.

June 7, 1494; Portugal's king King John II finally throws a fit and Spain and Portugal rewrite the boundary 1,185 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands which allowed Portugal to expand Brazil. This is the Treaty of Tordesillas. Pope Julius II did not formally sign off on this until 1506. (An Italian pope from Genoa this time! Also close to Michelangelo and Raphael!)

Of course, it actually doesn't matter much to Portugal that they don't get that much new land. Portugal already had significant territory in Africa and Asia.

Spain is wearing a little number drawn by Tlaxcalans in "Lienzo de Tlaxcala" from 1550 AD. The specific image was Cortez and La Malinche meet Moctezuma II. Hernán Cortés is of course one of the best known Spanish conquistadors.

Portugal is wearing something from Discovery of Brazil painted by Aurélio de Figueiredo! He was a Brazilian artist painting in a very Romantic style however my notes on him are very limited. But I will find them! His outfit is worn by Pedro Álvares Cabral who is largely recognized as the first European who arrived to Brazil. Saying he discovered it makes me laugh.

Paintings under the cut!

[eldritchexile]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

For @hetaberia-week Day 7: Cardverse

With the turning of a new cycle, Afonso is forced to confront the past he would rather forget. Time is running out. Soon enough, he would have to make a choice between the Queen he swore to serve and the brother he once failed to save. And Antonio? Antonio just wishes his brother would live to see the future.

[helianskies]

hetaberia '26 – 5 જ⁀➴ piracy

He sat upon the cot, watching as amber flickered across the rough surface of old prison stone and wrought iron bars.

From down the same hall echoed groans, pained and tired. When he had first been thrown into his personal cell, Antonio had assumed it was some other poor soul. Two days later, however, Antonio had come to wonder if the moans and groans were in fact those of a spirit who now haunted the cells of those destined to meet the same fate.

He would hope to have the ability to haunt the land of the living at the end of all of this. Would God grant him—a wronged man—the opportunity to eternally torment the men who had done this to him…?

[ read on ao3 ! ] [ for @hetaberia-week ! ]

[maivalkov]

After centuries of peace trading magical books, João's family shop finally meets a challenge. The crown has started something stupid, health and safety inspections, taking inspiration from the mortal world.

It's far from ideal, simply put. Some of his books are downright dangerous, while others refuse to be sold. João is certain he'll fail, be shut down, until he learns the inspector is his type, and keen to know the man who runs such a shop.

Written for @hetaberia-week day 4, bookstore

Read on ao3

[hetaberia-week]

thank you to everyone who has taken part in hetaberia week 2026! the main event week has come to a close, but never fear — we are also accepting submissions for the next two weeks! so, if life has been a bit busy or you've had a last-minute idea, you're still more than welcome to create and share your works with us! just remember to tag the event blog so we can find your post and reblog it! ⭑. 𓆝

[kiwisbocetos]

Day 6: Archeology // @hetaberia-week

Hello Hello! I focused on Mesoamerica through my studies so here we are! In this strip I present my Mexico OC who at this point is going by the name Dolores!

This statue is about 8 feet tall (2.52 m) so you might be pleased to know that I gave Antonio and Dolores accurate height comparisons by making him 5'10 and her 5'2!

Coatlicue has a funny history because she was buried three times. The first time was probably to preserve her, the second was because religious clergy believed indigenous people were praying to her, and the third time was because they had revealed her to study her for a brief period before burying her again likely for the same reason as the second time. She was unburried one final time in 1803 to briefly be presented at an English museum before returning home as a crown jewel to Mexico's first national museum.

Under the cut I'll give a brief history for her, some fun facts, and talk about about Mexican archeology and its relationship to Spain. In my view Spains relationship to Mexico is complicated. They are the reason much of our heritage has been scattered and destoryed but they also helped preserve it and I think the Coatlicue statue represents this.

She was a very scary piece of media to them. It is not up to debate whether Mesoamerican cultures sacrificed people. This was simply a reality much like public guillotine executions were a reality to France. You lived your life believing them to be necessary. If hell is real to Catholics then so was the idea that the world would end if the Emperor did not offer his blood to the Sun.

And yet she was preserved because the clergy recognized this was valuable. Even when they needed her gone to keep a Catholic order they did not destroy her as they easily could have. It is a very funny thing to know they had such a hatred of what they didn't understand and yet human curiosity will always outweigh fear and that's why so much was preserved. What a very complicated situation.

But much to rejoice with Coatlicue! She is a pinnacle of sophistication for Aztec artists as her existence also helps prove that the Aztec Empire did have modern knowledge but also upheld cultural values and actively chose their lifestyle. More of that under the cut of course.

Let's begin with Spain and Mexico's archeological relationship.

Spain destroyed an enormous amount of cultural objects found in the New World; partially out of fear of anything sacrilegious, a misunderstanding of cultural values they believed compromised a universal morality, and greed whether through the melting of gold or the resale of our culture to wealthy Europeans.

However, the Spanish are also a large part as to why we still have a history. As they set out to convert the indigenous population they turned to integration and found ways to connect their European culture with indigenous aspects. This is probably best seen in Mexican churches where we see indigenous arts in display.

They also were fanatics of these new cultures and often worked together with the indigenous to record their histories. Many religious men actively allowed indigenous people to gather oral retelling from older community members to write down in both Spanish and Nahuatl. In doing so many members wrote secret histories within the Nahuatl translation that are still being uncovered today. These were then kept in universities and taken over seas where they were kept safe from the fires clergy men started that would burn codices in New Spain.

Additionally, the church often offered smaller indigenous communities safety from Spanish settlers because they would take in religious orders and house them and therefore these orders would defend them from Spanish men coming over seas to take their land. This also allowed leaders to keep their positions in power. We must also remember that it was the church that defended indigenous communities from slavery by making the argument that indigenous people did have souls and therefore were children of god who should not be exploited. Work conditions were not massively improved but they could present themselves in court as free men.

All this to say that yes the Spanish did destroy massive amounts of our culture we may never recover but the situation is very complicated. Even as the clergy buried Coatlicue she was not destroyed because they knew she was important. We have to remember that any occupying power will destroy the culture of their predecessor. The Aztec Empire did so as well with whom they replaced. I don't intend to thank Spain but with history we can not treat it as a fantastical story. Humans are complicated and so are the events that follow. I can not help preserve our past if I am riddled with a bias that can keep me from entertaining an idea that might lead to something great.

Now, to her history!

In 1790 construction workers found two sculptures. The Sun Stone and Coatlicue. She stands at a massive 2.52 m (8.3 ft) and the Sun Stone had a similar massive size but the most impressive aspect of these discoveries were the incredible condition they were in. It is highly likely that they were buried for preservation purposes as Spain infamously destroyed cultural objects as the Empire invaded the New World. The fact that these were buried instead must have meant that someone hoped they would be found again in kinder times.

The Sun Stone and Coatlicue were then moved into public areas to be admired with the Sun Stone placed in a cathedral and Coatlicue at a university. (I believe it was Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, the predecessor to the National Autonomous University of Mexico). There she was studied by various Mexican scholars. Antonio de León y Gama believed her to be a deity of death and sacred war (Teoyaomiqui) due to her being beheaded with two snakes sprouting from her neck, having clawed eagle feet, having joints with fanged faces and 'death eyes', her hands being snakes, her hands being in an attack position, and because she wears a necklace made of human hands and hearts with a skull pendant. However her more common interpretation today is Coatlicue, the mother of the Sun God, and god of war, Huitzlipochtli. Coatlicue means "Serpents her skirts" (Coat is serpent in Nahuatl!) and this statue has a serpent skirt and in myths Coatlicue is beheaded and two snakes sprout from her neck! This interpretation was popularized by the Mexican architect Alfredo Chavero.

It is disputed if she was created in 1439 or 1491 as a date inscribed in her back could be read as either which is why I made Mexico forgetful about her creation date. We also do know for certain that she was not one of a kind as there do exist fragments of other like statues and another statue by the name of Yolotlicue (her skirt is made of hearts and not snakes!).

More interestingly, this statue is a representation of Aztec society making active cultural choices. Through the hands we can see naturalistic art elements (naturalistic is a term used in place of saying realistic as to not confuse with the art movement of Realism. It simply means 'appearing as it does in a natural state'.). They have human folds and an understanding of anatomy. Even the heart can be naturalistic since we see the blood canals but through this we also see a more stylistic trend of geometric abstraction or simplification. Aztec artists understood methods of creating art closer to life but actively chose a specific art style that simplified it. : ) It can be because of the stone material we have available as any other media that is easier to shape is also easier to be destroyed. Therefore we think one style is more popular because it's all we could find!

But we do know that Aztec society held different values and the art style could have represented a cultural identity rather then disinterest or no knowledge or naturalism in art. We know that many indigenous artist quickly adapted to the Renaissance styles Europe introduced to them via prints and copies! They were so quick to pick up the style of European masters that the Europeans noted it themselves in surprise.

They just really like how they created art : )

It's something we routinely see in Aztec society. They did not use metal because they didn't really want to but we have artifacts that show that they knew how to melt it they just didn't need it. It's the same with the wheel. We have toys with wheels so they clearly understood the concept but it was more culturally valuable to have servants that helped carry large loads rather then create a cart.

Also the comment of the stars is very funny because in myth the stars are all her sons and she only has one daughter. The Moon. Who beheaded her.

[helianskies]

hetaberia '26 – 7 જ⁀➴ cardverse

It was the dream he had grown with. To be a knight. To wield one of the very swords he had helped make. To make his family proud, but to forge his own path in doing so.

It was a dream he shared with many, no doubt. But there became one person in particular that Gilbert met on an ordinary market day whose parallel dream became important to him, too.

[ read on ao3 ! ] [ for @hetaberia-week ! ]

[doremile]

Day 6 - nightclub 🇧🇷: Come on honey, just like I taught you.

🇵🇹: Ok, but I'm not gonna drop it low.

[hetaberia-week]

[mellfifi]

day 2: domestic fluff

After a long day I think Netherlands likes to get scratched and his hair petted… like a bunny– but only when he’s alone with Spain or else he pretends it’s never a thing lmfao

But then when Spain has had enough he just dead-weights himself on Spain knowing it won’t get him moving whoops

Anyways! Here’s day 2 for hetaberia week!

@hetaberia-week

[iberiansheeps]

Day 5: wine

The way i tried to include the theme is quite simple, but I want to see Antonio working hard and perhaps promoting it...

@hetaberia-week

[hetaberia-week]

[doremile]

Day 5 - Wine

Feat. the pretty @renpizhangyuowhs

[maivalkov]

After suffering his first defeat, Captain Antonio questions himself. He recalls every command to figure out what went wrong, and wonders how he'll not only fix his ship, but motivate what's left of his crew.

Fortunately, there's a solution. Beyond a permanent fog lies Garmr's Grip, a cove which will aid both ship and sailors, and heal their captain's battered spirits.

Written for @hetaberia-week day 5, piracy.

Read on ao3

[reyalsasi]

That’s what I need.

Day 4 – Arranged Marriage 💍🌑🤍

@hetaberia-week

[hetaberia-week]