Marathon Hero Arredondo is JP Icon

Carlos Arredondo has almost literally become a household name overnight in Boston.

Arredondo helped tie a tourniquet to a man’s leg that had been all but blown off in the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon.

According to Twitter, Mother Jones, Boston.com and other media and social media outlets, Arredondo, 52, helped get the name of the Jamaica Plain Post Office on Centre Street changed in 2011 to honor his son, Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo, a U.S. Marine who died in a battle in Iraq in 2004.

Carlos Arredondo attempted suicide upon learning of his son's death in 2004, Mother Jones reports, he surivived and endured another tragedy when his other son, Brian, took his own life in 2011.

Arredondo has since become a known anti-war activist in the neighborhood. On Twitter, Robin (@Caulkthewagon), who says she connected with Arredondo during Occupy Boston last year, says Arredondo can be seen driving around JP in a van decorated with anti-war slogans.

“Nothing Carlos did yesterday surprises anyone who knows him, even those of us who don't know him well. Let's just leave it at that,” she tweeted.