Angel Marcelo Rodriguez-Cheverez

A. Marcelo Rodriguez-Chevres, also known as Marcelo Rod-Che (b. Oct 1949, Puerto Rico), is an American psychiatrist, salsa percussionist and vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent, husband of Frances Rodriguez Lopez (1950—2012) and father of Omar, Marfred, Marcel, and Rikardo Rodriguez Lopez. He lives and works in El Paso, Texas. Marcelo is the Puerto Rican Medical Society founding member and Chief Medical Consultant for the Emergence Health Network nonprofit. In parallel with his medical practice, Rodriguez-Chevres continues to perform with his Rod-Che y Mas Friends live salsa band and runs the "Rod-Che Studio & Promotions" company. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Marcelo showed singing talent and a great love for music in early childhood. Rodriguez-Chevres became fascinated with science and later medicine and chose a doctor's career instead of full-time music pursuit. In 1979, he graduated from the School of Medicine at Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (BUAP) in Mexico. Marcelo permanently settled in El Paso, a Texas city not far from the Mexican border, where he started psychiatry practice and sang with local salsa musicians and bands, often performing in a duo with guitarist Cecilio Ortiz. Soon after, Marcelo Rod-Che established his first band, Guar-a-Che. They appeared as a warm-up act for numerous prolific Puerto Rican artists over the years, such as José Feliciano, El Gran Combo, Willie Rosario, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Edwin Rivera, La Sonora Ponceña, Papo Lucca, Sonsoleil, Ashley la ¡Bomba!, La Sonora Sanjuanera, and Alex de Castro. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Marcelo Rodriguez-Chevres collaborated with his eldest son, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, playing percussion and singing on several releases by De Facto (2) and At The Drive-In. He also appeared in Omar's 2010 independent film debut, The Sentimental Engine Slayer; one of Marcelo's songs, "Here The Tame Go By," is featured on the accompanying CD/2×LP release, A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One.