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What:
El Vez
When:
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m.
Where:
Blue Cats
Cost:
$10 advance, $12 door
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Power to the People
El Vez campaigns for truth, justice and the Latino way
by Clint Casey
If Elvis and Charo had a hush-hush lovechild in the ‘60s, the product would almost certainly look and sound like Robert Lopez. For upwards of 15 years, Los Angeles-native Lopez has been gallivanting as El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, illuminating the oppression of the Latino community in the United States through his impersonation of the King.
An El Vez performance is a full-scale production (akin to Elvis’ own ’68 Comeback Special), complete with his band Memphis, back-up singers the El Vettes (Priscilita, Gladysita, Lisa Maria and Que Linda Thompson), lighting extravaganza and costume changes. Imagine Britney Spears—who herself has donned an Elvis-esque jumpsuit—with a pencil-thin mustache.
The Mexican King’s also got the marketing savvy of Spears, peddling posters, pencils, mouse pads, eight-track recordings, swatches of his clothing and authenticated locks of his hair at shows.
And with what’s left of his trademark pompadour, the cross-cultural caped crusader tackles inequality with enough searing candor to constrict the collars of the most open-minded liberals. The Latino modus operandi may serve as the hub for his material, but Lopez has been addressing socio-political issues from women’s rights to foreign policy since introducing the character.
Essentially, El Vez takes the music of Presley and superimposes his agendas on top of it. “It’s like a DJ mixing five different songs together. Musically, it’s rearranged, and subject-wise it’s like a low-rider chopped and channeled with Elvis songs,” Lopez says.
But El Vez doesn’t limit his repertoire to Elvis classics. An audience can expect to hear samples of more than 200 songs on any given night (including the Beastie Boys, Santana, Rod Stewart and R.E.M.). In Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business,” the slogan used by Presley’s Memphis Mafia, he sings about undocumented workers in the United States:
And if our bus is on time, getting to work way before nine, to stock and sweat, $2.15 is our pay / and you’re getting all annoyed ‘cause the problem’s unemployed; they’re jobs you wouldn’t take anyway / And we’re taking care of business, everyday/ Taking care of business, odelay / Taking care of business, we’re the maid / Taking care of business, and getting underpaid...
Right now, Lopez is in the midst of the whirlwind “El Vez for Prez” tour, pitting his alter ego against George W. Bush and John Kerry in a musical debate of sorts. Lopez typically does thematic shows (i.e. Christmas- and gospel-themed), but he explains, “This is a tour and a time when the country needs me right now to run for president.”
Politically, Lopez supports Kerry but has an “anyone but Bush” mentality—as evidenced in the anti-Bush anthem “(You Ain’t Nuthin’ But a) Chihuahua.” Citing foreign policy as the most crucial issue facing the country, Lopez says, “I think in the eyes of the world, we’re the number one threat to world peace.”
In full El Vez regalia, Lopez hopes to educate his diverse audiences with humor. It’s unfortunate that El Vez is funny, because the substance of Lopez’s message rings true. “Entertaining is what I do, but I go through the back door with laughter, catch people unaware and show them what they didn’t think about, to take a song like ‘Suspicious Minds’ and turn it into ‘Immigration Time,’” Lopez says. “The idea is to show people something in a new way, make them laugh, but also give them a dose of information, too.”
October 21, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 43
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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