Jon Manteca Cabañes, better known as Cojo Manteca (Manteca, the

cripple A cripple is a person or animal with a physical disability, particularly one who is unable to walk because of an injury or illness. The word was recorded as early as 950 AD, and derives from the Proto-Germanic ''krupilaz''. The German and Dutc ...

) (

Mondragón Mondragón (in Basque: Arrasate) officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933. Toponymy The current official name of the municipality is Arrasa ...

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

, 1967 -

Orihuela Orihuela (; ''Corpus Toponímic Valencià''. Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. 2009, València.) is a city and municipality located at the foot of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. The c ...

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

, May 25, 1996), was a person elevated to media icon in the late 1980s in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

after the publication of photographs and videos that showed him smashing street furniture in a student demonstration in January 1987.

Biography

He was born in Mondragón (Guipúzcoa) in 1967. On January 26, 1983, when he was 16, an electric shock caused him to fall from a pylon which he had climbed. Because of the wounds caused by the electricity and fall, he lost a leg and suffered severe head injuries, including a great scar across his head from side to side. Punk and homeless, on January 23, 1987, he was a newcomer to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. He was begging when he casually wandered onto one of the many student demonstrations that roamed the city at the time. This time the scene was at the intersection of

Alcalá Street Alcalá, Alcalà or Alcala may refer to: People *Alcalá (surname), includes a list of people with that name Places Bolivia * Alcalá (Tomina), a town in Bolivia Colombia * Alcalá, Valle del Cauca, Colombia Philippines * Alcala, Cagayan, a mu ...

and Gran Vía, in front of the Ministry of Education, and the demonstration was unusually violent. The police arrived and started to shoot, hitting a demonstrator, Maria Luisa Prada, who was 15 years old. Cojo Manteca, infected by the violent environment, as he explained later, used the one crutch he used to walk to break a

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

signboard station and a thermometer-clock near the Bank of Spain, and that attitude was captured by the cameras of

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major Spanish language, Spanish-language multimedia news agency and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was ...

press. The photograph ran on the front pages of national and foreign newspapers due to the colorful character (punk aesthetic, mutilation, scarring, violence), and soon ended up being converted by the media as a symbol of the student demonstrations, despite him not being a student nor having any relationship with the protest, other than being there by chance. He was identified days later in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

and spent a brief period in prison. On March 12, 1987, he was arrested charged on public scandal in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

for insulting

Our Lady of the Forsaken Our Lady of the Forsaken ( or ; , ) is a Catholic invocation of the Virgin Mary."Nuestra Señora de los DesamparadosGRU.edu. Georgia Regents University, Augusta. USA. Accessed 24 October 2013 She is the patroness of Valencian Community, Valenc ...

in her basilica. He spent 120 days in prison. He died on 25 May 1996 due to

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manteca, Jon 1967 births 1996 deaths AIDS-related deaths in Spain Activists with disabilities Spanish activists Spanish amputees Homeless people