Robert Alan Lopez (born 1960), better known by his stage name El Vez, is an American singer-songwriter and musician, who performs and records original material and covers classic rock songs. Mixing the styles of Elvis Presley and many other American rock artists with his own Latin-American heritage and music, he is known for expressing revolutionary views through the satire and humor in his songs. Early life Lopez was born in Chula Vista, California in 1960. His family "floated somewhere between middle and lower-middle class. Our diet included government cheese and something we called 'poor people's chop suey' a few times a week." He later described himself as a misfit in his youth, saying that he cried easily, did not have many friends, and "was a very, very chubby kid who had found his nest of salt in Warhol, Dalí, and the arts. I would spend my lunchtimes in the school library." His mother, Gina, recalled that "He was always artistic. He was first on his block to have platform shoes. They were about a foot high." His family was highly political, including an uncle who was in the militant Chicano group the Brown Berets. His grandparents were born in Mexico, and he frequently traveled there as a youth, visiting its museums and Mesoamerican pyramids, experiences which would influence his later musical work. He would become more conscious and appreciative of his Mexican heritage later in life, but did not learn any Spanish until he took a few classes while attending Chula Vista High School. Lopez attended his first concert in 1974, a performance by Led Zeppelin. His second concert was the New York Dolls, whom he much preferred. He became interested in rock music, reading Creem and Rock Scene magazines, but could only imagine what the bands sounded like. His first exposure to punk rock came from watching PBS, on which he saw Iggy Pop perform, and from his older sister Rhoda. The PBS series An American Family was also an early influence on both his musical tastes and sexual identity: "That is where I was introduced to Lance Loud and Kristian Hoffman (both of whom would go on to form the NYC-based punk band the Mumps). They too were Southern California guys who loved rock music and Warhol and knew that New York was the place to be. In 1975 they would be my first gay role models from