El Vez is a multiethnic, multicultural, multicostumed revolutionary who reinvents American rock from a socialist Hispanic perspective. ““G.I. Ay, Ay! Blues’’ (Big Pop Records) is his latest manifesto, following ““Graciasland’’ and ““A Merry Mex-Mus.’’ ““Misery Tren’’ remakes ““Mystery Train’’ via Pancho Villa, los zapatistas and an edict to ““destroy los capitalistas.’’ ““Say It Loud! I’m Brown and I’m Proud!’’ filters James Brown through a California immigration nightmare. ““I’ve worked all day with my hands and my feet / And all the time we’re running from some governor named Pete.’’ Throughout, a mes- sage of hope and unity rises to the fore. ““So love me tender, so love me long,’’ sings El Vez. ““Why can’t we all just get along?''

Nutty Los Angeleno: Seven years ago, El Vez was Robert Lopez, an averagely nutty Los Angeleno working at an art gallery. He decided to mount an all-Elvis show; by the end of it, he was plotting a trip to Memphis and scribbling Hispanic lyrics to beloved old chestnuts. Lopez was enchanted by the world of wanna-bes. ““In Memphis there was a place called Bob’s Bad Vapors,’’ he says. ““From 3 in the afternoon until 3 in the morning you could see an Elvis every 20 minutes.’’ Today the El Vez show is an extravaganza with pompom-toting singers (Lisa Maria and Priscillita), a rainbow of sequins, camouflage bell-bottoms with gold lamE flares, pro-tolerance patter and a band that moves from ““La Cucaracha’’ to ““Wipeout’’ at the drop of a sombrero.

Lopez knows this is silly. But as a second-generation Mexican-American raised in Chula Vista, Calif., he has a right to be culturally confused. ““In the ’60s, my uncles had the continental slacks and slicked-back hair,’’ he says. ““They looked like Elvis in “Fun in Acapulco.’ I remember as a kid thinking, “Elvis must be Latino, like us’.’’ But Lopez was encouraged by his parents to assimilate. He lived in a white neighborhood and didn’t hear Spanish until high school. ““The whole trip to El Vez-ness was a search for identity,’’ he says. ““How brown can I be? What are my roots?’’ Lopez believes that beyond the kitsch factor, El Vez has potential to spread good will. He’s tapped into an American ideal: that anyone can be Elvis, no matter which race, creed or jumpsuit size he is. ““When you come to an El Vez show, you walk away proud to be a Mexican,’’ he says. ““Even when you’re not.''