Production

Moctesuma Esparza

Moctesuma Esparza (born March 12, 1949) is an American producer, entertainment executive, entrepreneur and community activist. He is the chief executive officer of Maya Cinemas, a theater chain servicing to the United States Latino audience. He is also a partner with Carolyn Caldera in the company Esparza/Caldera Entertainment. He founded film distribution and production company Maya Entertainment in 2007. Esparza is a promoter of Latino films, and many of his films focus on Chicano themes. He has produced over twenty films, several of them for television, and has won over 200 awards. A participant in the 1960s-era movement for the civil rights and equality of Mexican Americans, Esparza continues to work with educational, cultural, and professional organizations, especially those that aim to educate Latinos in the business of media production.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Fireflies at El Mozote poster
5.2

A boy seeks revenge after surviving El Mozote massacre in El Salvador, where government forces killed his family and destroyed his village - the deadliest civilian massacre in modern Latin America.

Fireflies at El Mozote

2025

Due Justice poster
5.8

An attorney with a military past hunts down the gang who killed his wife and took his daughter.

Due Justice

2023

Selena poster
7.7

In this biographical drama, Selena Quintanilla is born into a musical Mexican-American family in Texas. Her father, Abraham, realizes that his young daughter is talented and begins performing with her at small venues. She finds success and falls for her guitarist, Chris Perez, who draws the ire of her father. Seeking mainstream stardom, Selena begins recording an English-language album which, tragically, she would never complete.

Selena

1997

Gettysburg poster
7.0

In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.

Gettysburg

1993

The Ambulance poster
5.8

One minute Josh Baker is meeting the woman of his dreams. The next, he's watching her whisked away by a mysterious ambulance that never arrives at the local hospital. Doubted by the police, Josh is forced to carry on a one-man crusade that leads to a discovery more frightening than his worst fears.

The Ambulance

1990

The Milagro Beanfield War poster
6.6

The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real estate developers and politicians determined to acquire their land for a golf resort.

The Milagro Beanfield War

1988

Taco Shop poster
3.7

A taco shop's business is jeopardized when a gourmet taco truck parks across the street.

Taco Shop

2018

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez poster
7.0

In 1901, Mexican American farmer Gregorio Cortez is forced on the run from Texas Rangers, evading a massive manhunt on horseback for days following a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman.

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

1983

The Telephone poster
4.4

Crazy out of work actress Vashti Blue spends all her time in her small apartment with her pet owl and her telephone, which she uses to try and solve all her problems with life.

The Telephone

1988

Radioactive Dreams poster
5.3

After an atomic war Phillip Hammer and Marlowe Chandler have spent 15 years on their own in an bunker, stuffed with junk from the 40s and old detective novels. Now, 19 years old, they leave their shelter to find a world full of mutants, freaks and cannibals. They become famous detectives in the struggle for the two keys that could fire the last nuclear weapon.

Radioactive Dreams

1986

Death in Granada poster
5.6

A journalist starts an investigation into the disappearance of famed poet and political agitator, Garcia Lorca, who disappeared in the early days of the Spanish Civil War in the the 1930's.

Death in Granada

1996

No artwork available
NR

A drug runner in Mexico is determined to call it quits after his final job when a DEA task force launches an operation in Mexico to combat the opium and heroin traffic in 1973.

Desert Runner