#aph new mexico

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

my tendency to ramble endlessly is strong 😔🙏 so I’ll try my best to keep this short. Anyways this is the result of a month long doodle page of a few of my westerners: Ramona “Mona” Sanchez/ California, Roberto Velasco “Rob McDaniel”/ Texas, & Pedro Ortega/ New Mexico + Aurelie Bayon/ Louisiana (c. @gardenkeeper ).

Under the cut, I’ll explain each doodle briefly from left to right, & I’m just gonna include the most important details. I’ll def be talking about Mona & Rob more so in the future.

Doodles left to right

Mona is like 12, a bit angsty, and boy crazy when she’s starting to think of being independent of Mexico. She thought the cute blonde boy (Alfred/USA) who was also fighting Mexico was totally gonna help her cause he’s y’know famously so good hearted (lolllll). That didn’t pan out well.

Mona on a horse cause why not. She’s usually trying to be this influencer-esque, health conscious, “spiritual” fake bitch, but like she can’t hide at her core she’s a bit of a cowgirl.

Mona & Rob talking when they’re US states. Rob just has a compulsive urge to tease her. And he does reveal stuff about her that she doesn’t necessarily want revealed (Californios are mostly castizos if you will and began identifying as Spanish rather than Mexican as they did not want to be associated with Mexico as Mexico was sending people with more mesitzos or just non-white ancestry to the region. Mona upon entry to the US would’ve identified herself as being Spanish as a means of asserting her distance from Mexico by trying to assert greater proximity to whiteness and Rob knows what she’s doing and just causally pokes holes in her story lol. Not that Rob is much better).

Rob & Aurelie just being affectionate together. I’ll save a greater discussion about them for another time. But their story begins when Rob is basically a neglected Spanish colonial outpost who’s forced to rely on the good will of his presumed French colonial enemy, Aurelie. They become friends throughout the years. Rob always had a crush on Aurelie. She began to like him more romantically towards the 20th century, and I think they bond over a shared love of music - especially genres from that region: Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, & Zydeco.

Rob in the late 19th & early 20th trying to impress Aurelie

Rob & Alfred are BFFs, they’re friends before the civil war but they really become BFFs post-civil war. They’re like highkey the same person. Loud, obnoxious, head strong. Except Rob has more of a lighter, jokester energy to him. Rob is slower to anger whereas Alfred could hold a grudge forever (New England ass).

A design of Pedro / New Mexico. I need to do more research on him. But so far I feel bad he’s stuck btwn Mona & Rob. They’re both objectively crazy lol. And Pedro just wants to be left alone.

Mona confronting Rob towards the end of the US Civil War.

[simple-persica]

Some state siblings I haven’t drawn together a lot. I like the they

[notsoniftyfifty]

Ayo, I’m back in record time

In order: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado

Finally finished the contiguous west :) Great Plains coming next if I don’t run out of motivation this work week

[ask-alaska-and-hawaii]

Hawaii's Favorite Character

New Mexico: Hey, Lani! Papa told me you're a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda like me.

Hawaii: Really?! Who's your favorite character?

New Mexico: Personally, I love Skyward Sword's version of Zelda since she's so cute. How about you? Who's your favorite character?

Hawaii: Mmmm...I guess it's a toss up between Link from Ocarina of Time and Link from Breath of the Wild because on one hand you have Ocarina of Time's Link being traumatized at young age unable to do anything against a great evil and when he was finally able to do something, he was traumatized even more and nothing he did meant anything in the time he came from and then he was forced to go into the past where he faced even more dangers with himself being the only one who knows the truth about what's happening while everyone else is blissfully unaware and even when he dies he still regrets his life and tries to ensure the future of his kingdom all the while being forced to wander the Earth until then. Meanwhile, Breath of the Wild's Link awakens from being practically dead after 100 years to find all of his friends dead, everything he ever knew gone, and himself amnesiac, only knowing that he has to do something about the great evil in the land before all is lost. So yeah, you can say I identify with them.

New Mexico: *wide-eyed and scared* PAPA!

[shinningraes]

[goldenstarprincesses]

At the UN, there are multiple nations who have signs like this taped to their office door.

[foolilazuli]

Img: Spain showing off the jewels of the Spanish Empire ft my Mexico design who is judging the hell out of Spain

So it’s canon that Spain was so busy looking after Romano, he didn’t pay attention to his other colonies. So who was looking after the colonies of New Spain? Mexico, obviously

I tried my hand on what I think Mexico would look like and here she is being shown off like a trophy along with little Philippines and young Cuba cause these three made the empire the most money. And yeah, she pretty salty about not only that but also having to be in charge of the other kids while not being that much older herself

Spain: I have made a formidable empire

America: You fucked up a country, is what you did. Look at her, she’s got older sister syndrome

[martizta]

Here are mochis of my state OCs (+ Staten Island)

[imaginethebeautifulworld]

Which nation do you think would be the most likely to fall for their best friend?

A very good question~

Hong Kong

Leon didn't think of it as anything beyond platonic connection, not at first.

He was having fun spending time with you, got a rush off of your ideas and your energy, and you had a natural instinct on following his train of thought, playfully bickering with him as if it were second nature.

If it hadn't been for Bao-Zhi pointing it out to him, he never would have even paid attention to the lingering touches, or how your presence alone was enough to center him.

And now that it's been pointed out, he's so awkward around you, quite literally tripping over himself sometimes, so sure his words will come out as a mess that he tries not to say anything anymore.

But he's worried about how you've been pulling away, and now he's stuck on the sharp edge of revealing everything to you, and possibly losing you forever.

Hopefully, one of these days he can stop choking on your name, and actually tell you what's been eating at him so much.

Mexico

Maria's epiphany was sudden and instant and she couldn't stop the admission from tumbling out had she tried.

Your smile, your laugh, the warm sunshine, the musky scent of a humid day, and the atrocious neon green shirt you were wearing just to annoy her-

The three syllables were falling out of her mouth the minute her mind processed the exact feeling flooding her veins, making her chest clench, triggering her nausea, making her warm in a way that had nothing to do with the weather.

And you- You just gave her that adorably confused look- ¡Dios mío you're so cute!- and said you love her, too.

So casually, so freely.

And now the anxiety is settling in.

Do you love her as a friend? Do you love her more than a friend?

She's not sure if she wants to laugh or cry or run away or pull you into a hug.

She knows what Thing 1 and Thing 2 would tell her to do: to just be honest, to follow through, but- But!

She plays it off, lets it roll off her shoulders, and vows to herself to try again another day.

New Zealand

Thomas was in denial for months.

He knew what he was feeling, and he knew why he was feeling it, but-

But.

He kept his mouth shut about the whole thing, too selfish to let himself be honest with himself or with you.

He thinks he must be a terrible friend- spending all this time with you, trying not to let his jealousy show when you spend time with others, never once daring to tell you the truth. And bugger all- his conscience is having a mare of it.

He keeps building up his courage to tell you- people probably don't put as much effort into wedding proposals as he's been trying to confess to you. But something-

Something always seems to get in the way of it, and he's left waving the whole affair away, distracting you with a joke or casual compliment, content to know that, even if he has to keep his feelings hidden for the rest of your life, at least he can spend every single day of it finding another way to make you smile.

Ukraine

Kateryna should have seen it coming a lot sooner.

Originally, it was supposed to be a temporary situation- letting you use her spare room until you could get your feet back on the ground, until you figured out which way your life was going. But you've been roommates for several months now, and-

She doesn't know when or how it happened, but somehow you stole her heart.

And now here you are, sitting in some weird way behind her on the bed, carefully pinning her hair in place for a gala she'd rather not go to.

Your helping was entirely your idea, preluded by the sheepish admittance that you noticed her arm was bothering her again.

And the soft way you admitted it, the gentleness of your voice, the soft brush of your fingers against her skin as you carefully secure each curl in place-

She closes her eyes, lets herself savor it while she can.

You'll leave her, eventually. But for these few minutes, she's going to pretend that you want to stay as much as she does.

Thanks for the ask, Lovely!

[askmexicoandcanada]

//it's been a while since I had made artwork of my oc Alejandra! Since I was stuck with art block and work, but now since I moved out I have more free time to make new artwork! Hope you guys enjoy this one!

[spidertalia]

You mentioned in one of your posts that you make state ocs.

Would you like to tell me a bit about them? Once I tried to learn all the states, but I always forget, maybe some thoughts will help me remember :D

of course !! i actually have eighteen of them made already, but i do wanna preface saying i'm making them purely for fun- i'll dig properly into the full history of each at some point, but i just want to imagine them as people today. i've also asked some friends/family who live in some of the states for their opinions, and then use stereotypes and culture of the states for the others.

it'd be a bit too much to cover all of them in a single post, so i'll just cover my favorites.

first off is of course my home state, florida. he's a indigenous hispanic man with some black features as well (since the state has a large hispanic and black population- most of my state personifications represent the race makeup of said state). his human name is Félix Avilés-de Leon. I forget exactly who his first name comes from (they're a historical figure in St. Augustine, but i can't find them again) but his surnames are ofc from the founder of St. Augustine and that legendary ol' explorer Ponce de Leon.

Florida's essentially a copy of aph America in personality, minus the hero obsession. he's loud, excitable, wild and energetic. he's incredibly adventurous with food and will eat pretty much anything. he's also completely unafraid of most animals- he'll pick up a 250 pound alligator snapping turtle with his bare hands like it's a baby, and he'll gush over it too. he speaks english and spanish fluently, along with several indigenous languages. he has a pet alligator named flagler. he likes pirates, roller coasters and hot weather, and is extremely weak to the cold.

also, i base their ages off of first settlement (it's my canon and I get to decide how i make it  😤 ) which would make florida the oldest state, since St. Augustine was founded in 1565.

then there's massachusetts, who i made with help from a friend who lives in the state. his name's william revere, but he goes by bill. he's white with medium length brown hair that he often ties into a low ponytail, and he has an ahoge like alfred, but his represents Martha's Vineyard. he has glasses but prefers to wear contacts. he's super into hockey (even having a rivalry with canada over it) and also fights with new york a lot. he will also fight/argue with england every time they're together. he enjoys objectively bad movies and non-shooter video games, and owns a boston terrier. he also has a boston accent. ironically, considering his hockey rivalry with canada, he's also a big maple syrup fanatic.

then there's california, who i've gotten advice on from two different friends. she's a trans woman and indigenous hispanic- and she's actually siblings with a few states and mexico. mainly, she's the youngest triplet to arizona and texas. she and texas, of course, fight all the time over anything and everything. her human name is currently clara mendoza-vicario, though the surname may change.

california is a HUGE fan of films and movies. she has a massive film collection of over 50,000 films, and she's a passionate fan of the filmmaking process in general. she likes almost every single movie she's ever seen, and she will get into heated arguments with england over movies. she, new york and massachusetts have their own little movie club just to watch movies. her favorite type of movie are ones that had a lot of passion and creativity behind them- for example, films like the batman, into the spiderverse and puss in boots: the last wish. the more genuine passion behind a movie, the more she'll love it, no matter how objectively bad it is.

she's also incredibly economically smart. if the state of california was its own country, its economy would be fourth in the entire world, only behind china, japan and germany. she actually intimidates a few of the nations because of this. however, she's a genuinely friendly person, known for her sunny attitude. outside of movies, she loves music and the outdoors. she's just as good as florida at dealing with wild animals, she's just quieter about it.

the next state i made with two friends from there, and that's ohio. oddly enough, i don't have as much on him, but his name's Chris de La Salle and he has a heated rivalry with michigan. he's a calm, easy going guy who likes adventure, scouting, fishing and rollercoasters.

and with the help of one of my half sisters, i also made wisconsin. ironically, wisconsin is the drunkest state even though she's physically 20- no one knows how she gets her endless supply of alcohol and they've stopped trying to stop her. her human name is Carrie La Baye, and she has dirty blonde hair, violet blue eyes and a curl to boot. she was initially a french colony, so it surprises the others that she's the complete opposite of france- she's outdoorsy, a bit of a redneck, and almost always covered in dirt. she owns a number of ATVs and she loves cheese, beer, bratwurst, fish frys and hunting. she's pretty much unaffected by the cold. she also dislikes spicy food, and is probably one of the weakest to spices.

she's proud, confident, stubborn and non-emotional. she likes to help people and is very family oriented. she's not related to minnesota but is kind of an older sister figure to her. wisconsin and minnesota very much act like siblings- they're very similar in interests, bicker a lot, and get excited together. however they both hate to be mistaken as siblings.

and the last state i'll mention for now is new york ! he was a bit tricky to make considering NYC makes up a lot of the perception of the state, but i tried looking into the culture of upstate new york as well.

new york is an afro-latino man named Theodore Douglass, but he goes by theo (teddy is reserved for only very close friends). he speaks the most fluent languages of any state (english, spanish, cantonese, mandarin, russian, yiddish, haitian, italian, bengali, french, arabic, korean, hebrew, japanese and tagalog, along with a number of indigenous languages. he speaks some polish, hindi, german and greek). he's almost always fighting with new jersey and/or massachusetts. he's incredibly used to the cold, and is also a very efficient and skilled worker, though he doesn't like working. he thoroughly enjoys the arts- music, theater, dance, film, painting, drawing, sculpture- you name it, he loves it. he's surprisingly kinda friends with romano- the two have a mutual respect of each other, considering new york was very eager to learn all about italian culture and food, and was very welcoming to romano in general.

new york is a remarkably intelligent man with a bit of a superiority complex; he's proud and confident, like many of the states, and he's a very fast, diligent worker. he usually only cares about sports when up against his personal rivals, and he doesn't hold back with criticism. and similar to the vibes of nyc, he's surprisingly unbothered and very difficult to surprise.

once again, these are all made purely for fun and all off stereotypes, culture and vibes. i will say i've currently designed florida, california, ohio, maryland, arizona, massachusetts, new york. wisconsin, minnesota, illinois, new mexico, alaska, oregon, north carolina, south carolina, georgia, tennessee and alabama. if you do wanna hear about any of the others, let me know !! i love talking about them ^^

[simple-persica]

New Mexico enchants his way into the family!

Wow, he's here! He's a very quiet and kind of standoff-ish person who really opens up to close friends and family, as seen with Cali and Nevada. He is the cowboy ever and is the token big brother of the western states because I said so. He and texas have a very long and weird history, so they really don't get along very well.

Has??? A weird amount of knowledge on nuclear science??? Kinda funky but ok. He is also a firm believer in aliens. Moreso than Nevada, that's for sure. He's still mad about Rosewell.

Some design things! His white streak is a reference to White Sands National Park! The patterns on his jeans and hat are inspired by Navajo beading as there is a large Navajo population there. His ring is made of trinitite which is a glassy leftover of nuclear testing in deserts. His belt has silver plates like Concho belts, which is a popular style of silver-smithing in Navajo culture.

ALSO!!

I'm trying to come up with a name for him but I've hit a block in my research and also want to hear what y'all have to say! If you're interested look under the cut!

So some base notes, he's Navajo-Latino and has a sun motif. The sun thing is mainly because of the state flag, I just think it's neat. So Sun-themed names are what I was going for but don't have to be the end-game.

But I cannot decide if he should have a Navajo first name and a Latino surname? Or visa-versa?

While doing research on Navajo naming conventions and how to go about naming characters I got a lot of mixed answers. And I'm very confused because a lot of Native American people, from different cultures and Navajo, said that if they're younger they might have a Navajo name as a way to show pride in their culture. And if they are older they would most likely have an anglicized name because they were not allowed to have a Navajo name. But New Mexico is actually older than the other western states, so that pretty solidly places him Pre-Europe and therefore he would most likely have a full Navajo name? But I don't want to completely glance over his Latino side either, so I'm worried I'm getting too deep on one side.

Idk, I'm opening the floor, if you have any insight or resources to share I would greatly appreciate it! <3

[wowalotofthesearetaken]

Tag List

All Character Tags for this Tumblr page are listed below and you may browse them to your liking. Do know this, Trigger warning will be both at the top of posts and in the tags, as well as extra things like time period or platonic reader, etc. 

Aph America

Aph England

Aph Canada

Aph France

Aph Russia

Aph China

Aph Germany

Aph North Italy

Aph Japan

Aph South Italy

Aph Romano

Aph Prussia

Aph Sweden

Aph Finland

Aph Denmark

Aph Norway

Aph Iceland

Aph Lithuania

Aph Estonia

Aph Latvia

Aph Poland

Aph Austria

Aph Mexico

Aph Hong Kong

Aph South Korea

Aph Taiwan

Aph Belarus

Aph Ukraine

Aph Hungary

Aph Whales

Aph Northern Ireland

Aph Ireland

Aph Scotland

Aph Australia

Aph New Zealand

Aph Greece

Aph Turkey

Aph Cyprus

Aph Seychelles

Aph Netherlands

Aph Belgium

[shinningraes]

[ask-alaska-and-hawaii]

No I Will Not Be Giving Any Context

New Mexico: Is that Papa wearing nothing but a Stetson hat?

Texas: What in God's- Okay you two for the next few days, we've never seen him in our lives.

[incorrectaphstatequotes]

California: *holding a cauliflower in front of New Jersey’s face* What is this.

New Jersey: .....Cauliflower?

California: *to New Mexico* Now tell him what you think it is.

New Mexico: *arms folded* Ghost broccoli.