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Abraham Rodriguez (born in The Bronx) is a Puerto Rican novelist, short story author and musician who writes in English about the experience of Latinos in the United States. Although he has been living in Germany since the mid-90s, Rodriguez continues to set his stories in the South Bronx. He is part of the Nuyorican Movement. Rodriguez is one of the leaders of Latino Literature that emerged from 1980-1990, along with other writers, such as Junot Díaz, Achy Obejas, and Diego Vázquez Jr.

As a musician, he is the founding member, guitarist and singer for the Berlin-based punk-rock band Urgent Fury.

Life
Abraham Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican who was born in 1961 in South Bronx, New York. His mother is from Fajardo, Puerto Rico and his father is from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rodriguez is the only child in his family. Rodriguez' father was a nationalist and a veteran of the Second World War. When Rodriguez was ten, his father, a hospital dietitian who also wrote poetry, gave him his first typewriter. His father encouraged and inspired him to write, and at a year after, he dreamed of being a writer because it was "an emotional release." During his childhood, Rodriguez wrote war novels, science fiction stories, and fanzines.

Rodriguez attended P.S. 025 Bilingual School, an elementary school in the Bronx, New York. Afterwards, he went to school in the Spanish Harlem and then to the Franklin High School in New Jersey, which was close to Piri Thomas' home. While in school, he presented his Star Trek fanzine to his high school English teacher whom Rodriguez believed was encouraging him to write. However, in an interview with Rivera Lucas, Rodriguez mentions:"[The teacher] laughed in my face and told me Puerto Ricans don't become writers. They become plumbers, mechanics, electricians. He said, 'Don't put yourself through this humiliation."Rodriguez struggled throughout his high school years. In addition to the incident with his teacher, Rodriguez states that he was "sick of being on [his] own." He dropped out of high school when he was sixteen, yet acquired a general equivalency diploma in 1981. Afterwards, in 1982, he enrolled in City College of New York to study literature and film. Rodriguez dropped out of college in after "six years of academic burnout."

Before becoming a writer, Rodriguez worked doing "stock jobs and mail clerk jobs." In the spring of 2001, Rodriguez, together with the Supportive Children Advocacy Network and the National Book Foundation’s donation of copies of The Boy Without a Flag, held writing workshop for the children of East Harlem. He also served as a literary panel on the New York State Council on the Arts.

He currently lives in Berlin, Germany with his wife and son.

Career
In college, Rodriguez gave some of his war stories a professor, Konstantin Lourdes, a Greek poet. Among the stories, Lourdes loved "No More War Games," which was later featured in The Boy Without a Flag, and presented it to Edward Rivera, author of Family Installments: Memories of Growing Up Hispanic. Rivera became his mentor and significantly influenced his writing style. He was also the mentor of Ernesto Quiñonez, author of Bodega Dreams. Rivera encouraged Rodriguez to participate in the Goodman Fund Short Story Contest, which he won with a story about a "German sniper who befriends a dog." However, he urged Rodriguez to write about the South Bronx. Rodriguez followed Rivera's advice and began writing about the youth's experience living in the South Bronx.

The short story, "Babies," was Rodriguez' first publication; it was featured in a Chicago magazine that was owned by a friend. After some time passed, it was published in Best Stories From New Writers in Writers Digest Book, which garnered the attention of Lois Rosenthal. Rosenthal published several of Rodriguez' stories in her magazine, Story, which was known for introducing new authors and helping with their careers, such as J.D. Salinger, Ludwig Bemelmans, Junot Diaz, among many others. After his publications, Rosenthal found Rodriguez an agent.

In 1992, Rodriguez received critical acclaim with the publication of the short story collection, The Boy Without a Flag, which chronicles the life of seven Puerto Ricans who struggle with poverty, violence, and life in the South Bronx. In an interview with Carmen Dolores Hernandez, he claims that he had an identity crisis for a long time throughout his life and The Boy Without a Flag was a way for him to come to accept it. In the semi-biographical title piece, Miguel, the narrator, is a Puerto Rican eleven-year-old schoolboy and aspiring writer, who suffers an identity crisis after he reads his father's copy of a biography of Pedro Albizu Campos. He is punished and criticized by the school faculty after he refuses to stand up and salute the American flag. Rodriguez won The New York Times' Notable Book of the Year award for The Boy Without a Flag.

Rodriguez published his first novel, Spidertown, in 1994, and it rapidly became a success. The novel follows Miguel, a sixteen-year-old who has dropped school and become involved in the business of the local drug dealer, Spider. It has been described by literary critic, De Noyelles, as “a true-grit, no-holds barred glimpse of life among Puerto Rican drug runners in New York City’s South Bronx.” The novel won the American Book Award on 1995. The novel was also translated into Spanish, German, and Dutch. In addition, Spidertown received a $50,000, two-book contract and movie deal from Colombia Pictures for $375,000. Robert Rodriguez, who he met in Seattle, was originally going to direct the movie; however, when he dropped out, the plans for the film adaptation of Spidertown were dropped as well.

Music
Rodriguez' father also introduced him to rock music, and for his sixteen birthday, he gave him his first guitar, a Hondo Les Paul copy. Growing up, Rodriguez was infatuated with and influenced by The Beatles, which he claims "changed his life," T. Rex, David Bowie, Badfinger, and The Stones, The Kinks. In 1980, he formed his first band called, White Riot, although the band broke up after 6 months. Afterwards, he played with several other bands, including a pop band and a Reggae group.

Rodriguez created Urgent Fury in 1985 after he met a bass player named Zev Rogoff, who went to the City College of New York with him. Rodriguez invited him to be a part of his band and Rogoff brought in Harry Viderci, a drummer who played for SIC* FUC*S. The band's name is inspired by the code-named operation of the US military invasion of Grenada in 1983. The band eventually underwent several splits and formations. Urgent Fury split in 1992, then it was revived in 2001 with bass player, Geena Spigarelli, and Kaleen Marie Reading as the drummer. Ultimately, Urgent Fury was disbanded after Rodriguez moved to Germany. However, he again reformed Urgent Fury in 2013; the group included Steiff as bass player, and Michael Richter as the drummer. Rodriguez announced the Urgent Fury 's permanent disbandment on September 14, 2017, and claims that it resulted because of the band's artistic differences.

Awards

 * 1982-1983 Goodman Fund Short Story Contest
 * 1993 New York Times' Notable Book of the Year, for The Boy Without A Flag
 * 1995 American Book Award, for Spidertown
 * 2000 New York Foundation for the Arts grant
 * 1996 Youth prize at the Literaturhaus Wien for Spidertown

Stories Featured in Magazines and Anthologies

 * "Babies." Best Stories From New Writers. Edited by Linda S. Sanders. Writers Digest Books. 1989. Pp. 160-177.
 * "The Subway King." Story. 1991. Pp. 73-79.
 * "Roaches." Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction. Edited by Delia Poey and Virgil Suárez. Harper, 1992. Pp.267-285.
 * "The Lotto." Currents from the Dancing River: Contemporary Latino Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Edited by Ray Gonzalez. Harcourt Brace and Company. 1994. Pp. 36-49.
 * "Baptism Under Fire." Syncamore Review. 1997. Pp. 10-16.
 * "Fake Moon." Nerve.com. 2000.

Essays

 * "On Being Puerto Rican: Report from the Eastern Front." Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. vol.11, no. 2. 2000. Pp. 95-100.
 * "Looking for Ed Rivera." Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. vol. 14, no. 1. 2002. Pp. 149-153.

Discography

 * Just a Cog in the Corporate World Cassette (1986)
 * Youth Gone Mad (1991)
 * Body Count (1991)
 * Demos:1984-86 (1992)
 * Reclaim (2012)
 * Gratis-Ep (2014)
 * Let Freedom Sting (2016)
 * Hasta Fuego! (2017)