Born and raised in Robstown, Texas, Marty Perez attended school in Calallen, a suburb of Corpus Christi. Often the only Hispanic in his class, he did very well in school ... until the 8^th grade, when he transferred to a school in Robstown. Before long, he had dropped out, run away to Dallas with a girl in his class, and soon started a family. Not equipped for earning in the real world, he soon turned to a life of crime, the only thing he had been taught growing up. His goal was easy money, no matter the cost, and for the next twelve years he lived from crime and violence.
This life eventually caught up with him, and he did two years in the Texas Department of Corrections and then five years in Federal prison. This proved to be a blessing. In January of 1994, he gave his life to the Lord in a small jail cell in Charlotte, North Carolina and began participating in prison ministry.
When he was released from prison, Marty remarried, to Carmen, a woman he had met in the visitor room at a Beaumont Federal facility. Together, they had a daughter, Isabella, who is now eighteen, and for many years they served in ministry in Spanish-speaking churches. Now self-employed, Marty is running his own business in Texas and Louisiana, the renovation of homes damaged or destroyed in hurricanes. He loves street evangelism, prison ministry, men’s ministries. He has also applied for patents on several of his inventions. He prays that others may be discouraged from a life of crime by reading his story.