Moctesuma Esparza—Hollywood producer and owner of a budding chain of theaters—is still a crusading activist.

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Except for some gray hair and added weight, friends who knew him as a teen say that Esparza is much the same now as he was in the 1960s—as serious and self-confident as ever, and as passionately idealistic.

Underneath the polished veneer of the Hollywood producer and efficient workaholic who gets 150 calls a day to manage projects he’s spearheading, Esparza remains an activist at heart.

Walkout is just the latest, most sophisticated extension of his activism. Esparza is clear on the matter: “This movie is relevant as a turning point in American history and the empowerment of American Latinos,” he says. “It is after this point in time in which an entire generation is empowered.

While Walkout is still the talk of the town, Esparza is already moving full-speed on other projects, not all of which have to do with making movies.

He’s an active board member for over a dozen organizations, including the New American Alliance Institute, founded by Henry Cisneros, and the Latino Theater Company. As chairman of the latter, he recently helped acquire a 20-year lease to an old Los Angeles theater where he plans to create a new hub of theater arts.

In addition, Esparza founded and helps run a charter school in downtown Los Angeles. And he says he’s just committed to aiding in the creation of a new medical school in California.

Then the activist in him emerges. “We have a situation in heavy Latino communities where there is one doctor for every 20,000 people, while the ratio in places like Beverly Hills is one doctor for every 200 people,” he says. “This is ridiculous. This is a huge disparity. There hasn’t been a new medical school created in 30 years, so something needs to be done.”