Hi Swept57, and welcome here
given my Avatar, Aria isn't really my Area (no pun intended
), but your descriptions do ring some bells. If you could provide us with some pics (we love pics here), I'm sure some members will jump in with some basic answers
'Cortez' is usually associated with Cor-tek (Cort, South Korea), and I own this Cort-made Gumika, which is a 1:1 copy of the Matsumoku-made Vantage VA800 'Phantom' (except for the craftmanship and the hardware, they're of lesser quality). There definately is a connection there.