Editing Spain Rodriguez (section)

==Early life==
<blockquote>"I would go back to Buffalo periodically and I would take photos. It’s interesting. Hardly any of those buildings are there now. My old neighborhood is a freeway interchange. Whenever I run into people from that time period they all remember those days. I thought it was me. I thought it was some personal quirk remembering Buffalo in those days but in Buffalo itself there’s a whole cult around that."<ref name="cj/2012/msr">{{cite web |last1=Rosenkranz |first1=Patrick |title=Spain Rodriguez: Still Cruisin' After All These Years |url=https://www.tcj.com/spain-rodriguez-still-cruisin-after-all-these-years/ |website=[[The Comics Journal]] |access-date=27 August 2024 |date=26 April 2012}}</ref> - Manuel ''Spain'' Rodriguez</blockquote>

Manuel Rodriguez was born March 2, 1940,<ref>"Manuel Rodriguez." ''The Writers Directory''. Detroit: St. James Press, 2012. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.</ref> in [[Buffalo, New York]]. He picked up the nickname Spain as a child, when he heard some kids in the neighborhood bragging about their Irish ancestry, and he defiantly claimed Spain was just as good as Ireland.<ref>Rosenkranz, Patrick. [http://www.tcj.com/spain-rodriguez-fought-the-good-fight "Span Rodriguez Fought the Good Fight,"] ''The Comics Journal'' (NOV 29, 2012).</ref> Rodriguez studied at the [[Silvermine, Connecticut#Silvermine Art Guild|Silvermine Guild Art School]] in [[New Canaan, Connecticut]] alongside cartoonist [[M. K. Brown|M.K. Brown]].<ref name=NYTimes /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyBmDAAAQBAJ|title=Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963–1975|last=Rosenkranz|first=Patrick|publisher=Fantagraphics Books|year=2002|isbn=9781560974642|location=Seattle, WA|pages=39}}</ref>

<blockquote>"When Manuel ''Spain'' Rodriguez ditched art school in 1959, the decision came easily. The [[Silvermine, Connecticut#Silvermine Art Guild|Silvermine Guild School of Art]] professors didn’t appreciate his representational drawings, an alcoholic landlord threatened his life, and he’d witnessed a good friend commit suicide. So he returned to his hometown of Buffalo, New York, where he painted, took a janitor job (at the Western Electric plant for five years<ref name="RRsb/msr">{{cite news |last1=Faingold |first1=Noma |title=Sunset Resident Edits Film Documenting Countercultural Comics Artist |url=https://richmondsunsetnews.com/2021/10/11/sunset-resident-edits-film-documenting-countercultural-comics-artist/ |access-date=28 August 2024 |work=[[List of San Francisco neighborhood newspapers|Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon]] |agency=[[List of San Francisco neighborhood newspapers|Sunset Beacon]] |date=11 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref>), became invested in left wing politics, and joined an outlaw motorcycle gang. Rodriguez’s experiences as a member of the ''Road Vultures Motorcycle Club''<ref name="cw/1967/6/round-up">{{cite news |last1=Parkhurst |first1=Joe |last2=Van Elk |first2=Don |title=Round Up |url=https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1967/6/1/round-up |access-date=27 August 2024 |work=[[Cycle World]] |date=June 1967 |quote=Ever since the mid-1950s the Buffalo, N. Y. area has been plagued by a misfit gang who call themselves the "Road Vultures." What started out as a basically carefree and fun loving, yet relatively harmless, group, has gradually progressed through disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, malicious mischief, petty larceny, grand larceny, burglary, robbery, rape, assault in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees, use, possession, and sale of narcotics, to now when one of their members has finally been charged with being an accessory to murder in the 1st degree.}}</ref><ref name="bPD/rvMC">{{cite web |title=Road Vultures Motorcycle Club |url=http://www.bpdthenandnow.com/roadvultures.html |website=b<!-- pdthenandnow.com --> Buffalo Police Then and Now |access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> later manifested in black-and-white illustrations when he moved to Manhattan.<ref name="hA/msr-Sexist">{{cite web |last1=Umile |first1=Dominic |title=Rebellious, But Still Sexist: Revisiting a Giant of Underground Comix |url=https://hyperallergic.com/412486/spain-rodriguez-street-fighting-men-fantagraphics/ |website=Hyperallergic |access-date=27 August 2024 |date=1 December 2017}}</ref>"</blockquote>