In the early 70s, Martínez received a grant to document the work of Chicano artists. He traveled throughout Texas, New Mexico, and California, and through his travels, photography came to play an important role in developing his aesthetic, especially for his early Pachuco Series. He started painting the series in the late 70s during a time when only white individuals or groups were being iconized in paintings.

Martínez offsets his melancholic subjects against a vibrant palette of clothes in tension against abstract backgrounds. The individuals in Martínez’s works are hybrids derived from facial features found in photographs found in high school yearbooks, obituaries, newspapers, and other public sources. Martínez explains, “The idea of a very frontal, and very emotionless, almost expressionless face just staring at you came from Richard Avedon’s work. My characters rarely appear in naturalistic skin tone; this is my way of addressing discrimination of that sort and thus neutralizing it."