Haring met and began collaborating with graffiti artist of Angel "LA II" Ortiz in 1980. Haring recounted: "We just immediately hit it off. It’s as if we’d known each other all our lives. He’s like my little brother." Ortiz's artistry formed an important part of Haring's work that has gone unacknowledged by the art establishment. Following Haring's death, Ortiz stopped receiving credit and payment for his part in Haring's work. According to Montez, author of the book "Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire", the Haring Foundation and the art world have since made strides to rectify Ortiz's erasure.