[aeortiz]

That reminds me of "pescatarian" in English, and "pescado" in Spanish: both use a hard C sound.

[jaclaz]

The C is always hard before an A, O an U, in Spanish and Italian, the soft one is before E and I.

To have the hard C in Italian an H needs to be added, CHE or CHI (while in Spanish that leads to something more like tch).