text: Early life and career Bob Martinez was born in Tampa, Florida on December 25, 1934, the only child of Serafín Martínez and Ida Carreño Martínez. His grandparents were Spanish immigrants who had come to Tampa from the province of Asturias to find work in the Spanish/Cuban/Italian neighborhood of Ybor City. Bob Martinez's mother was a seamstress and his father was a waiter at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, and the family lived in Ybor City and West Tampa during his youth. Martinez graduated from Jefferson High School in 1953 and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa in 1957.
  For several years, he taught civics at local high schools. He taught at Oak Grove Junior High for three & half  years, starting in 1957.
  He then went back to college and earned a master's degree in labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois in 1964 and returned to Tampa, working as a business labor consultant. He also taught as an economics instructor at the University of Tampa, in the summer of 1965.
  Shortly after graduating, he taught at Chamberlain High School for three & half years. During his time as a teacher there he became involved with the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.
  HCTA
  In 1965, Martinez was named the executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association (HCTA), the local teachers' union in Hillsborough County.
  In 1968, the HCTA joined the Florida Education Association's statewide teacher strike in support of more education funding and collective bargaining rights for teachers. Though the labor action was seemingly unsuccessful in the short term, its goals were gradually met over the following few years through court and legislative actions. In 1971, Martinez and the HCTA negotiated the first union contract for Hillsborough County teachers.