National Register of Historic Places |
In 1956 the theater blossomed under the leadership of Arturo Tirado, who also hosted tours for famous celebrities and musical groups.
In 1961 Tirado held a meeting in San Francisco that resulted in the formation of the Spanish Pictures Exhibitors Association. Elected President, Tirado represented almost 300 Spanish language movie houses nationwide in negotiations with distributors.
In 1965, Cesar Chavez, of United Farm Workers (UFW), led a strike of California grape pickers on the historic farm workers march from Delano to the California state capitol in Sacramento. Fresno was the largest city on the route as well as the agricultural center of the San Joaquin Valley and proved pivotal to the momentum of the march.
Over 1,000 people gathered at the Azteca Theater in support of the farm workers. Politicians, middle-class Mexican-Americans and enlightened general population were joining the line.
Tirado retired in the 1980s and the theater suffered lower attendance and eventually closed until 1999 when David Owens acquired it. He opened the iPacific Gallery in the lobby while efforts were being made to get the big hall open.
On September 26, 2014, the theater re-opened for events in the main hall under the management of Laura Barboza, who continues to make improvements and host a variety of events. The possibilities are just beginning.
Locally, Karana Hattersley-Drayton, of Fresno's Historic Preservation helped prepare the local Historic Fresno designation and worked with National Park Service staff for submission to the National Register.
Considerable research was done over several years to document significant historical and cultural events related to Latinos in Twentieth Century California.
Building on it's heritage, the Azteca Theater continues to seek ways to serve the Spanish language, as well as multi-cultural, communities of Central California.
--- David Owens, May 18, 2017
Azteca mural project 2016 |
Teatro Azteca on Facebook