VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘On My Block’ Star Julio Macias On Showing Leadership In The Latino Community

On My Block star Julio Macias reflects on the show’s impact in his life and on culture in his new uInterview.

Macias said he feels a “sense of relief, but also accomplishment” following the end of the Netflix series after four seasons.

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“The idea of having carried this character throughout the last five years,” he told uInterview founder Erik Meers, “and to have been fortunate enough to have built such an incredible character with the writers, and the directors and the showrunners, yeah, a sense of satisfaction that I can look back at, you know, almost every single episode and say I’m proud of that work, definitely.”

The 31-year-old actor has made a name for himself, as more than just an actor. He’s become a sort of “community leader” in Latino media, and a proponent of voting rights.

“When I started acting it was just I wanted to act,” Macias said. “There wasn’t this idea of being a community leader or part of the movement to represent my own people. But, now that I’m in it, that responsibility has been, you know, gifted to me. And now that I see how many people respond so positively to having a show like On My Block and having a character like Oscar be played out on television, and people saying ‘We want more of that,’ and ‘Why don’t we have more of that?’ And ‘Will you be a part of making sure that we have more of that,’ Now I take that responsibility quite seriously, and say ‘Yeah absolutely.’

“Whenever I can I will speak up, and whenever roles come my way that I see show the Latino community, and for me specifically the Chicano community, in a positive light, I’m going to jump on it.”

Macias also said that as he gets older, he sees himself becoming more politically involved, using social media to urge his followers to register to vote.

“This is one direct way that anyone can voice their opinion and have it count,” he said, “so I try not to tell people which way to vote, unless I feel very strongly about one particular thing, for me it’s more about people having the freedom and the voice to go out and speak and say something and feel that they have an opinion in the grand, greater scheme of the country.”