"You can't sit there," he says to El Vez. "Those tables and chairs are for customers."

So much for El Vez's notion that "all of America is waiting on a Mexican Elvis."

The incident gives Robert Lopez - the slender, soft-spoken creator of El Vez - a chance to explain that his show is more than just camp.

"It's all about music and fun and having a good time," he says, sipping black coffee. "But I'd like to think people go away with something real. Maybe they'll think about discrimination or immigration troubles or problems in the ghetto when I sing `In the Barrio.' "

But, Mr. Lopez, 29, admits it may be difficult for fans to find substance when he hits them with "You Ain't Nothing but a Chihuahua," "Hurraches Azules" (the Spanish equivalent of "Blue Suede Shoes") or twitches his hips and exclaims, "Well, lawdy, lawdy, lawdy, Miss Lupe . . ."

But don't dismiss El Vez as just another Elvis impersonator. "I'm an Elvis translator," Mr. Lopez says, carefully patting his towering black pompadour. "I just give his music a Mexican point of view. After all, Elvis is more than a jumpsuit, and Mexico is more than mariachis and tacos."

Despite never having been a devout fan, Mr. Lopez got hooked on Elvis in 1988, when he organized an Elvis art and memorabilia exhibit at La Luz de Jesus folk art gallery in Los Angeles. When an Elvis impersonator had trouble with his moves, Mr. Lopez gave him some pointers.

"It really made me feel good," recalls the Chula Vista, Calif., native. "It's like primal therapy once you get up there and start doing Elvis. It makes you free. I guess that's why people who are so bad keep doing it."

That impromptu performance and his successful exhibit, which included works by Georgia artists David George Marshall and the Rev. Howard Finster, changed his life. "It was all Elvis for 24 hours a day for a while, and I said that I was either going to hate Elvis or go over the edge when it was over," Mr. Lopez says. "I guess I went over the edge."

Actually, Mr. Lopez, who speaks with an exaggerated Spanish accent when he's El Vez, went to Memphis, talked his way into an Elvis impersonator show on Aug. 16, 1988 - the 11th anniversary of the King's death - and became a hit.

"I was on national TV before I even performed in Los Angeles," he says. "I found out that you don't have to be a white, 40-year-old, heavyset man to do this."

Mr. Lopez doesn't try to sound like Elvis, but he does go for maximum effect with his costuming. Among his outfits are a gold lame suit and a white jumpsuit with sequined images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Mexican flag on the back.

"I save the jumpsuit Elvis for the end of the show," he says. "That's the Elvis everybody does."

Although steady bookings on the West Coast and in Europe enabled Mr. Lopez to quit his job at the art gallery last year to perform full time, he isn't certain how far he'll go with El Vez.

"I've thought about doing Liberace," he says. "Imagine a Mexican Liberace. . . ."