Cheech Marin is an actor, director, comedian, author, and Chicano art collector.

In this video interview Cheech talks to us about his support of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

I grew up listening to Cheech and Chong records and then watching their movies.

I have stayed a big fan of Cheech Marin all through his movie and television career and so I was very excited to get the chance to say hi and find out what charity Cheech supports.- JW

Cheech Marin

From Wikipedia

Richard Anthony “Cheech” Marin (born July 13, 1946) is a Mexican American comedian, actor, voice actor and writer who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong, and as Don Johnson‘s partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on Nash Bridges. He has also voiced characters in several Disney productions, including Oliver and Company, The Lion King, It’s Tough to be a Bug!, Cars, Cars 2 and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Marin’s trademark is his characters’ strong Mexican accent; this is part of a comic persona, rather than a natural accent since Marin was born and raised in the United States, despite being of Mexican descent.

Early life

Marin^[1]^[2] was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Elsa (née Meza), a secretary, and Oscar Marin, a policeman in the LAPD.^[3] Marin was born with a cleft lip, which has long since been repaired. Although he speaks Spanish and uses it in some of his movies, he is not particularly fluent.^[4]

Cheech Marin 02 sh Marin’s nickname “Cheech” is short for “chicharron“, a fried pork skin that is a popular snack in Mexican cuisine^[5] and a favorite of marijuana smokers afflicted with “the munchies“, and the nickname’s alliteration with Chong’s surname made “Cheech and Chong” an obvious choice for the name of the duo. The name of this character gave rise to the popular term “cheeched”, meaning “under the influence of marijuana, usually at a relatively high dose”.^{[citation needed]}

Marin graduated from Bishop Alemany High School, located in California’s San Fernando Valley, as well as from San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. Marin auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa in 1967, but moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in September of that year to avoid the U.S. draft during the height of the Vietnam War.^[6] In Vancouver, Marin met his future comedic partner Tommy Chong.

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Founded in 1975, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund provides scholarships to Latino students, as well as related support services. HSF seeks to give students all the tools they need to apply to college, do well in their course work, graduate, enter a profession, excel, help lead our nation going forward, and mentor the generations to come.

As the nation’s largest not-for-profit organization supporting Hispanic American higher education, HSF has awarded over $400 million in scholarships and provides a range of ancillary programs for candidates, scholars, and their families.

HSF further strives to make college education a top priority for every Latino family across the nation and to mobilize our community to proactively advance that goal – each individual, over a lifetime, in every way he/she can. For more information about the Hispanic Scholarship Fund please continue to browse our website.

Our Goals:

Build a coalition of corporate and philanthropic partners and a nation committed to increasing Hispanic degree attainment.
Ensure every Hispanic household in the U.S. has at least one college graduate, inspiring and mentoring others in the family and community.
Increase Hispanic degree attainment based on changing Hispanic demographics

Our Impact:

Increasing College Knowledge

1,600 college planning workshops reaching more than 350,000 Hispanic families since 2000
Bi-lingual PSAs in over 33,000 national multi-media outlets
College resources delivered to 190,000 households
Over 1.8 million web visitors
100,000+ publications

Providing Financial Resources

Over $400 Million in scholarships since 1975
Over 5,100 scholarships awarded annually
Over two thirds are first generation and low-income

Supporting Achievement

36 HSF Scholar Chapters on college campuses nationwide
1st year retention workshops for transfer planning support and graduate school preparation
HSF Alumni Network with over 57,000 former scholarship recipients
Career Center – internships and job opportunities with HSF partner organizations

– See more at: http://hsf.net/en/about-hsf/#sthash.W73p3ozT.dpuf

Cheech’s Newest Project

From Amazon

Chicanitas: Small Paintings from the Cheech Marin Collection {size doesn’t matter}

showcases 70 paintings by 29 painters represented in Cheech Marin’s noted collection of Chicano art. Marin, the entertainer who is well known for his work in movies, television, and improvisational comedy, has been acquiring art for more than 20 years, and he has amassed one of the renowned collections of Chicano art in private hands.Marin’s most recent passion is collecting small paintings averaging 16 inches square and smaller in size.

In contrast to other works in his collection representing and promoting the Chicano art movement of the mid-60s and 70s, the content of many of these small paintings leans more towards the artist’s internal or personal statement rather than as a response to political, social or cultural situations.

The paintings, which range from photo-realism to abstractions to portraits to landscapes, offer a window into the lives of the artists.

Whether showing us a glimpse of their neighborhood as Margaret Garcia does in her expressive paintings of a car wash, hair salon, grocery store and taco shop; or personal interests such as graffiti art, street fashion and underground music that influence the works of Carlos Donjuan or peppered with mystery and a bit of humor as in Ricardo Ruiz’s four Masotas portraits based on family members; or making a statement about the double standards imposed on Mexican women as Ana Teresa Fernandez does in To Press I and &To Press II or John Valadez’s underwater figure studies painted on ceramic tiles, each artist draws on his or her own upbringing, cultural heritage, education and life experiences for inspiration.