However, what those same millions may not know is this: he is the world's largest collector of Chicano art.
"Chicano is a mix between traditional Mexican and American pop, and where those two elements come together and form something else, that is where Chicano art traditionally has been born," says Marin.
The third-generation Mexican-American tells Eyewitness News that he can immediately identify a piece of Chicano artwork because it conveys the Chicano experience from different viewpoints.
"Whether it's social or religious or geographic or gender based or abstract., when you put these viewpoints together, you get the whole feeling - the essence of being Chicano," Marin adds.
This weekend, Cheech will receive the 'Arts Patron of the Year' award at 'Arthamptons', a 3-day international art fair in Suffolk County. He will be there to showcase, discuss and educate people about a genre he says is not just Chicano art, it is American art.
"It's exactly the American experience. I mean, different people from different nations came here in different ways. African-Americans came under chains. Mexicans came under chain-link," says Marin.
The art fair runs Friday through Sunday at Sculpture Fields of Nova's Ark in /*Bridgehampton*/.
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