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

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The Maya Cinemas itself grew out of Esparza’s activism. After the release of Selena in 1997, Esparza says, he orchestrated 20 premieres across the nation in Latino communities.

“It was then that I found out that no modern megaplex, first-rate movie theaters existed in a Latino community anywhere in the nation,” Esparza says. “So in 1998, I decided I was going to pursue this idea, and it took me a while. I had to learn that business, find the right partners and raise the capital.”

The Salinas Maya Cinemas, which opened last summer, was supposed to be the third theater built, but it turned out being the first thanks to community leaders’ “political will” to transform Salinas’ downtown core.

Esparza says that construction crews are about to break ground for the second Maya Cinemas in Bakersfield, and three more theaters are about to be approved in Fresno, Inglewood and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“I’m looking to build a total of 40 theaters with over 500 screens,” Esparza says.

Esparza says the Maya’s business is increasing every month, while Salinas business leaders say it’s playing a crucial role in the downtown revival there.

“I can’t emphasize enough what its significance is to Oldtown Salinas,” says Catherine Kobrinsky, a board member on the Salinas Oldtown Association. “It’s bringing in a lot of people who normally wouldn’t come.”

Now Esparza is planning to bring a Latino international film festival to Salinas, much like similar festivals in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He says it will happen this year or next.

The Maya Cinemas and its chain are the first piece of a very ambitious plan: a major Latino movie production-distribution enterprise. “This will be part of a vertically integrated entertainment company responsible for distribution, production and exhibition.

“Expanding Maya Cinemas on a national level will allow us to produce our own movies and launch the next generation of Latino filmmakers.”