Mercado was born on September 29, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York to a father who was a Dominican dockworker and a Puerto Rican mother who was employed by a local factory.
[1] Shifting across the East River from his Brooklyn roots, Mercado started promoting Latin jazz at Manhattan clubs such as The Village Gate.
[1][3] He developed new talent, such as La India and Marc Anthony, presenting salsa concerts at major venues across the country, from Madison Square Garden to the Hollywood Bowl.
He rode the expanding size and economic power of the nation's Hispanic population and a general interest in salsa music.
The sale came following financial difficulties exacerbated by the loss of a copyright infringement suit, in which composer Glenn Monroig won $7.7 million from a federal jury, which had grown to $11 million with interest, based on claims that RMM had modified one of his songs and used it without his permission or payment of royalties [3] Thereafter the sale of RMM, Ralph Mercado returned to promoting salsa concerts, on a global basis.