Spanish-Language Theaters Planned : Movies: Producer says he wants to open a chain of sites aimed at Latino audiences, including one in San Fernando.

Producer-activist Moctesuma Esparza--an outspoken proponent of Latinos in Hollywood--announced plans Tuesday to launch a national chain of Latino-themed theaters called Maya Cinema that would cater to underserved urban communities.

Esparza, who has produced such movies as “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” “Selena,” and “The Milagro Beanfield War,” said he has a project approved in the Bay Area city of San Pablo, and is negotiating with cities for sites in Arizona and Illinois.

He plans to start with six sites--beginning in San Fernando and San Pablo--and continue to add five sites each year. He is looking for locations in East Los Angeles, Huntington Park and the harbor area.

The goal, he said, is to bring back the Spanish-language theaters that dotted this country’s Latino neighborhoods in his childhood and give Latino-themed movies a platform and distribution channel.

“I want to take us back to the historically strong presence of Spanish-language theaters in the United States,” Esparza said during a news conference on a blighted street where he wants to build the Valley theater.

From the 1940s to ‘60s, there were 700 Spanish-language screens in the country and 300 that showed Spanish-language fare part time. There were 40 in Los Angeles alone, he said.

“I grew up on these,” he said. “But by the end of the ‘80s, they were all shut down.”

The city of San Fernando has long expressed interest in building a theater-shopping complex to revitalize its downtown, but City Council members were conspicuously absent at Tuesday’s news conference.

Two developers have expressed interest in building a multiplex project at a site on Celis Street, said City Administrator John Ornelas. They are Burbank-based developer Victor Georgino and Pueblo Contracting Services Inc., which is working with Esparza.

Pueblo has renovated numerous historic sites around Los Angeles, including Angels Flight downtown, and El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

The San Fernando City Council is scheduled in October to select one developer for an exclusive rights agreement. Financial details would not be hammered out until then, Ornelas said.

“The council is interested in considering [Pueblo’s] proposal, definitely,” Ornelas said. “It’s either going to be Georgino or Pueblo.”

Severyn Aszkenazy, president of Pueblo Contracting Services, estimates that the multiplex and shopping center would cost $20 million to $30 million to build. Funding would come from a combination of sources, he said, including substantial private investment. He would not identify specific investors.

Esparza, who owns Eastside cable television provider Buenavision Telecommunications Inc., said Pueblo would build to suit his needs, and he would be a tenant.

Experts caution that building a theater chain is an expensive proposition. The only person who has succeeded in recent years is Magic Johnson, who partnered with Sony Theaters. But experts say the Latino market is there, if Esparza can pull it off.

Esparza was accompanied Tuesday by Ernesto Hernandez, 17, a San Fernando High School student who will appear in Esparza’s upcoming movie, “Price of Glory.”

Esparza chose the Pacoima youth from 2,000 potential actors to play Jimmy Smits’ youngest son, Johnny, in the movie due out next year.

Ernesto said his only previous acting experience was a few skits in his Advanced Placement Spanish class last winter. But he does know how to box, something that came in handy because Smits’ character is obsessed with boxing.

His sister, Leticia, 25, who is an actress, heard about the call for young Latinos and encouraged him to give it a shot.

“It was a Saturday morning, and I didn’t really want to go, to tell the truth,” Ernesto recalled. “But push came to shove, I guess I had nothing to do, so I went.”

He was so impressed with the experience and the activist-minded Esparza that he returned to school with plans to start an “I Can Film Festival” at San Fernando High.

Like Johnson’s theaters in Baldwin Hills and other predominately black neighborhoods, Esparza hopes the Maya Cinema chain would become a community anchor. He plans to open the buildings for educational purposes in the mornings and to provide “cry rooms” where parents can watch movies with their babies.

“For the big, Latino families,” he explained.

He envisions the theater as part of a whole complex with bookstores, restaurants and a central plaza.

It is part of his larger vision to promote Latino films and directors. He told The Times last year that he and his partner, Bob Katz, intend to produce 10 Latino-oriented films with unproven directors, each budgeted at about $5 million or less.

Esparza said Tuesday that the Maya Cinema chain would dovetail with his larger production goals. In a large multiplex of 10 to 18 theaters, he would devote one or two screens to Spanish-language films and one to English-language movies aimed at Latinos.

Finally, he hopes to add a 10-cent surcharge to each ticket, which the theater would match and use to provide scholarships for local students.

There are already Spanish-language movies, he said, and huge Latino audiences waiting to watch them.

“What’s missing is the screens,” he said.