The artist was born the third child of seven to Ursulo Montenegro and Martha Piña in Los Angeles, California. He was named ‘Marcos Enrique Montenegro.’
The artist’s older sister tells the school nurse they were being abused. The children are taken from their parents by Social Services. Starts learning English.
Marc and his siblings are put into foster care and get moved from house to house-sometimes with his siblings, sometimes alone. He makes his first friend.
The social worker finds two different homes. The oldest 4 go to a mormon family in Wilford, Idaho. The youngest three find a family in Roberts, Idaho. He is enrolled at Teton Elementary, and starts to forget Spanish. Mormon missionaries start teaching him “the gospel.”