Eddie Martinez was born and raised in Huntington Park, and went on to represent his community on the city council and as mayor.

On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae has an in-depth conversation with Martinez about how he got into public service, being an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and his upbringing in the Los Angeles neighborhood that he now serves.

“It was a different neighborhood back then,” said Martinez. “I think at the time, we were only the second Latino family in the neighborhood. I loved to live like the ‘Leave It to Beaver/Brady Bunch’ type of world, where you got to play with the kids next door and just create a clubhouse or tree house, and just had a lot of fun. But I also grew up with some issues. I was bullied as a kid, so that kind of led me to the kind of work I do today.”

After studying business marketing at Long Beach State University, Martinez began a career in social justice nonprofit work.

In 2009, he co-founded the Latino Equality Alliance, a group of individuals and representatives from several LA organizations who came together to work on the “No on Proposition 8” campaign in East LA.

“Today, we really work with building power with LGBT youth and families to create safe spaces at schools, neighborhoods and home,” Martinez. said. “And a lot of focus today is to deal with health equity issues, substance use, school justice and also the need to educate folks on LGBTQ issues.”

Martinez also explained his health and wellness campaign, and the story behind his “Viva Banana Power” slogan.

“I was advocating for the health of the families here in Huntington Park because they don’t have the same healthy choices as other communities,” he said. “I was sharing this on Facebook, and there were quite a few people that were disagreeing with me, saying, ‘Eddie, Latinos don’t eat healthy. They don’t eat that way.’ And I said, ‘I disagree with you. You’ve got to give them the options, the choices. Latinos do eat healthy.’ Then I took a break and went to my kitchen and got a banana. And I was going to eat it and I realized, ‘Wait a minute, I’m Latino, I’m from Huntington Park, I’m holding a banana. This is proof that Latinos can eat healthy.’ And I did a selfie on social media to show proof, just to counter the naysayers. So it became my fight on social media to promote wellness through the power of the banana.'“

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com and watch at 9 a.m. and noon Sundays.