About Angel Martinez
I was born in Puerto Rico in the year 1965 to Angel L. Martinez Perez in a small town called Las Piedras. We lived in a little wooden humble home with tin ceilings and no indoor toilet or shower. There were three bedrooms in that home if I remember correctly. The floors were concrete. Our beds in nets to keep out the mosquitos which would suck you dry otherwise. On occasion we would see huge brown tarantula’s native to the country slowly walking across the floors.
Our sink for dishes and drinking water was outside a wooden window which opened outward. The yard was plush with greenery which gifted things such as bananas, plantains, and bread fruit (Pana). Chickens would roam the yard and eat fresh corn laid out by my Grandfather Isabel. The chickens laid the eggs we enjoyed on mornings as well as the fresh poultry the chickens provided which we enjoyed with our meals at night. We as children ran around half naked in our underwear most days due to the sultry hot weather.
My father in those years was in the military and served proudly for this great country. I came to New York about 1967-1968. My father, fresh out of the military, joined us as we started our new life here in the states in Brooklyn, New York, where I still reside to this day. As I grew, I vividly remember his struggles to try and provide for us. Working during the day and attending Brooklyn College as well St. Johns at night. We lived in a humble home. The struggles were as they were for my family, but my father’s strength took us past it all.
My life growing up was a difficult one, and you can read more about that in my other works, such as in the face in the mirror, and in plain sight, both go in depth into my struggles. The face in the mirror is a book on reflection, as we look inside ourselves and try and find and see ourselves in a positive light, and the steps that I have taken that have changed my life drastically. In plain sight, is a book about my young life and my struggles growing up in New York City. I am also a screen writer, with two adaptations to in plain sight. More importantly, I am a husband, a father, and friend to those in my community.