The Azteca Theater (Teatro Azteca) is an historic

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in the Chinatown district of

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, built by Gustavo Acosta in 1948. The theater was the first Spanish language cinema in the San Joaquin Valley, serving a growing population of Mexican-Americans in California's Central Valley. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2017.

History

The theater was designed by Fresno firm, Johnson & Moore Consulting Engineers who designed the Biola Theater and Johnson was involved earlier in some of the facade work on the Warnors Theater in Fresno. It officially opened on 30 November 1948. In 1956 Acosta leased the Azteca Theater to Arturo Tirado who is closely associated with the theater and entertainment in the Hispanic community into the 1980s when he retired. In 1961 Tirado was President of the Spanish Pictures Exhibitors Association representing 300 movie theaters in the United States. His father Romualdo Tirado was well known in California theater and a

Cantinflas Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes (12 August 1911 – 20 April 1993), known by the stage name Cantinflas (), was a Mexican comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He is considered to have been the most widely-accomplished Mexican comedian and is cel ...

. Known as the Golden Age of

Mexican Cinema Mexican cinema dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ideal ...

, Cantinflas,

Pedro Infante Pedro Infante Cruz (; 18 November 1917 – 15 April 1957) was a Mexican ranchera music singer and actor, whose career spanned the golden age of Mexican cinema. His popularity spread across Latin America. Infante was born in Mazatlán, Sinalo ...

María Félix María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and ...

Agustín Lara Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino (; October 30, 1897 – November 6, 1970), known as Agustín Lara, was a Mexican composer and performer of songs and boleros. He is recogn ...

Pedro Vargas Pedro Vargas Mata (San Miguel de Allende, 29 April 1906 – Mexico City, 30 October 1989) was a Mexican tenor and actor, from the golden age of Mexican cinema, participating in more than 70 films. He was known as the "Nightingale of the Ameri ...

Miguel Aceves Mejía Miguel Aceves Mejía (13 November 1915 – 6 November 2006) was a Mexican actor, composer and singer. Miguel Aceves Mejía, or "the God of Ranchera" as he was popularly known, was born in El Paso, Texas, and was registered in Ciudad Juárez i ...

Pedro Armendáriz Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings (May 9, 1912 – June 18, 1963) was a Mexican film actor who made films in both Mexico and the United States. With Dolores del Río and María Félix, he was one of the best-known Latin American movie stars ...

, Antonio Aguilar and

José Alfredo Jiménez José Alfredo Jiménez Sandoval (; 19 January 1926 – 23 November 1973) was a Mexican singer-songwriter of rancheras, whose songs are considered the basis of modern Mexican music. Biography Jiménez was born in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, ...

were among the luminaries seen at the Azteca Theater. Besides popular films from the

, singers and theatrical acts frequented the stage. The theater was a rallying point for

César Chávez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merg ...

on 24 March 1966 when he made his march from Delano to Sacramento. The Azteca closed in the late 1980s and was partially reopening in 1999 with an art gallery and events. In 2014, the theater was restored.

Description

The Azteca Theater is a 2-story brick masonry building constructed in a late Art Deco style. A statue of Bruce Lee stands in the lobby, a hint of the fact that the theater would also play kung-fu movies. The walls of the dressing room in the backstage have signatures of many artists that performed in the theater. The wooden organ pipes that were part of the theater are now on display on the walls of the next door bar, A Love letter to Fresno.

References

External links

Azteca Theater official websiteCinema Treasures
Azteca Theater

Fresno Film Commission {{Coord, 36.7290, -119.7933, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Theatres completed in 1948 Buildings and structures in Fresno, California Cinemas and movie theaters in California Theatres in California Tourist attractions in Fresno, California Music venues in Fresno, California National Register of Historic Places in Fresno County, California

History

Description

See also

References

External links