The Hot Name for March Appears to Be Ruben Blades, on Schedule

March is salsa star Ruben Blades’ month: His new album is being released and his latest movie, “The Milagro Beanfield War,” opens.

Blades, who writes most of his songs, also has a master’s degree in law from Harvard University. How does he find time to do so much?

“The answer is that I am very well organized,” he said. “I select chunks of time based on my interest, I block that time, and when it arrives I do only what that time has been devoted for.

“I begin to plan things usually a year or two before the event occurs. Even if at the time the event doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, I begin to plan for that event.

“My interests are so diverse that I keep surprising everybody by literally jumping from one thing to another and yet to another. For instance, when I went to Harvard to do my master’s, I didn’t perform. During those two years, 1984 and 1985, I devoted my time to studying. I wrote some songs on the side, so to speak, but I didn’t perform at all.”

After getting his degree, Blades went to New Mexico to shoot “The Milagro Beanfield War,” directed by Robert Redford, in 1986. It was his first screen appearence since teaming with Whoopi Goldberg in “Fatal Beauty,” which was released that same year.

The year 1985 saw the release of “Crossover Dreams,” a film of dashed hopes and hot salsa in El Barrio, starring Blades and directed by the Cuban-American film maker Leon Ichaso.

“Ichaso has a very good eye for the absurd, which I think is a tremendous asset for anyone,” Blades said, talking about his work with various directors. “Redford, being an actor himself, is a very patient director, very protective. They both make actors feel very comfortable,” he said.

“The Milagro Beanfield War” will open in New York and Los Angeles on March 18 and nationally April 1. Blades’ LP, “Nothing But the Truth,” will also be released March 18, according to Elektra Records.

Blades, 39, who was born in Panama and moved to the United States in 1974, described “The Milagro Beanfield War” as “a comedy with a very serious point.”

The movie, based on the novel of the same title by John Nicholson, is about the frictions and disputes between outside developers and local residents of a little, fictional town in New Mexico called Milagro.

Blades portrays Bernabe Montoya. “He is the man in the middle. He is part of the community, but he has been appointed as a sheriff by the developers. . . . He is the only one that has a genuine, independent outlook of both sides.”

Blades said Latino actors have more opportunity for film work today than 15 or 20 years ago. “I think that because of the rising interest of the Anglo public toward the Latin culture and because of the impact of the political realities in Central and South America, new opportunities are given now to Latin actors and also Latin directors,” Blades said.

“And I think this is a trend that will continue.”