I watched the first Star Wars film (aka “Episode 4”) on the big screen of a crappy cinema of Buenos Aires somewhere in 1978 or 1979 (I was 5 or 6 years old).
After seeing my eyes watching the movie, my mum bought me my first Star Wars action figure (the now highly sought-after original ones from Kenner) and it was, you guessed it, an R2-D2.
And yes, I still have it with me, and I’m not kidding, together with a Darth Vader, a C-3PO, a Han Solo, a Chewbacca, a Ben Kenobi, and a ROTJ Luke Skywalker dressed in black and with a retracting green lightsaber. All original Kenner figures I got between 1979 and 1984. Oh, and a small X-Wing fighter, too.
And here’s the thing: the way “R2-D2” sounds in our Spanish-speaking heads is uncannily similar to the diminutive version of the name “Arturo” (“Arthur”), and for that reason, since always, the whole of the Hispanic world calls that faithful astromech droid “Arturito” or quite literally, “Little Arthur”.
Maybe you knew this, but I can confirm. The same way, we call C-3PO “Citripio” for the same acoustic reasons.
Oh, and “Star Wars” is usually known as “La Guerra de las Galaxias”; the word “Guerra” being one of those few Spanish words from Germanic origin, derived from Old Germanic “Werra” whereby “War” is derived too. The Iberian Peninsula and its coveted jamón was conquered in the 4th century by the Goths if I’m not mistaken, before the Arabs, and everyone left some words behind upon retreat.
Who doesn’t want jamón, huh. I don’t know where the word jamón comes from though. Who cares.