Fernando Martinez is a character appearing as a radio personality in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
He is voiced by Frank Chavez.
History[]
Background[]
Fernando Martinez is a long-running radio host with a career on and off radio for almost 30 years.
Although he speaks fluent English, he sometimes briefly speaks Spanish. At these moments, he reveals that he has a natural Puerto Rican accent.
Events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories[]
Fernando's radio career dates back to at least 1984, as a roaming reporter for Emotion 98.3 during the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. The station's main DJ Lionel Makepeace was often at odds with him and did not understand Fernando's poetic yet shallow monologues about passion and lust.
Events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
By 1986, he had proved popular enough that he hosted the show himself, possibly because his philosophy on passion fit much better in the era than Makepeace's deeper more sensitive views on the subject. Around this time Martinez also did a commercial for Medallion Man, which was advertised on radio stations throughout Vice City. At one point, he details how, during one of his visits to the Malibu Club, he happened upon a lonely woman and introduced her to an Englishman named Kent Paul, and thus realized that he had a "gift for bringing people together", possibly foreshadowing his future business venture.
Events of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
Sometime after 1986, he was fired from Emotion 98.3 and forced out of Vice City for unknown reasons. He then moved to San Andreas, where he became the improvised host of Lonely Hearts on WCTR after hijacking the show from then-current host Christy MacIntyre in 1992.
Events of Grand Theft Auto III[]
He resurfaces in 2001, running a program in Liberty City called "Fernando's New Beginnings", where husbands relieve the stress of married life by getting a mistress. He is interviewed on Chatterbox FM by Lazlow Jones. When asked about his ethnic background, he says he is "Latin" but later claims that he is from Upstate. Lazlow eventually gets fed up when he realizes "Fernando's New Beginnings" is nothing more than a brothel, and ends the interview by yelling "You're just a cheap pimp from Upstate, get out of my studio!".
Character[]
Personality[]
Martinez comes across as a "Latin lover" who seduces all the women he meets and who has a passionate and lustful personality. He often refers to himself in the third person.
He frequently loses himself in his musings, poetic yet eccentric, about subjects such as passion and romance. He likes to give tips on how to get women and how to secure the "passion" in a relationship. He holds sexist views on women, which come to bite him later in his career as views on gender roles change more and more in society.
His personal life is also implied to have gone downhill later on in his career with some personal problems.
All of these qualities are comedically discussed throughout his air time.
Trivia[]
- Fernando's backstory from the 3D Universe is also one of the few to have been adapted for the HD Universe lore changes.