Members

• Isidor Asash - director and guitarist
• Roberto Moscoa - percussionist and trumpeter
• Rogelio Royes - vocalist
• Omar Gauna - vocalist
• Orlando Quezada - bass
• Ricardo Espinach - drums
• Armando Conejo - keyboard
• Jose Hernandez - guitarist

The group's main records are "Celebrando", "Amuletos" and "Que no paren". They have toured in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Marfil was founded in the Atlantic port town of Puerto Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Puerto Limon is known for its Jamaican ancestry and reggae rhythms which had a direct influence on the sound of the band. Their sound blends reggae, soca, soul, and jazz.

In the 1980s, Marfil's greatest hit was "Represento", (I Represent), a salsa tune that was composed by the Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 songwriter Lou Briel

Lou Briel

Lou Briel, is a Puerto Rican singer, composer, comedian, producer, pianist, and host, among other things.-Early Years with Anexo 3:...

, and that the group converted into cumbia

Cumbia

Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...

. Since the late 1980s there has been a dispute about the author's rights of the song. Some people in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 think that "Represento" was composed by one of the members of Marfil, even though the song is registered under Lou Briel's name in the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, and in the "Composer's and Editor's of Latin American Music Association", ACEMLA (Asociación de Compositores y Editores de Música Latinoamericana). It is still being disputed.

Marfil means 'Ivory', in Spanish.