Unlike most Elvis impersonators, Robert Lopez has created his own successful and unique character from the King's legacy. Looking back on his uneventful life growing up in Chula Vista, California, Lopez recalls that his uncles would wear "continental slacks and slight pompadours in that Elvis style." With this in mind, maybe it is not so surprising that the shy boy from Chula Vista would one day transform himself into the nationally acclaimed Virgin-de-Guadalupe, jumpsuit-wearing, sombrero-sporting, pencil-line-mustachioed Chicano musician/performance artist El Vez.

In 1988, while showcasing an Elvis-inspired kitsch/folk art exhibition at La Luz de Jesús Gallery on Melrose in Los Angeles, a 29 year-old Lopez received his true calling—to combine his talents as a musician (he used to play for the Southern California punk band The Zeroes) with his taste for Mexican kitsch and re-invent himself as El Vez. Just in time...