Filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza might work in Hollywood, but he doesn’t attend glamorous parties or schmooze with stars.

Instead, Esparza sees himself as an activist and organizer.

“I have, by necessity, been a pioneer,” Esparza told about 60 people Tuesday in McCormick Auditorium at the Hispanic Heritage Month kick-off event. “I have had to walk where there were no footsteps.”

Esparza, who grew up in a housing project in Los Angeles, said he had to find his own way to success in Hollywood. His role models were not movie stars and filmmakers but activists such as Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. At the University of California-Los Angeles, where Esparza first became interested in film, he organized a sit-in at administrative offices that led to the creation of a minority film program at the university.

Pushing for change continued to be a part of Esparza’s career as he began making films about Latino issues. His first film was a documentary about a march protesting the Latino casualty rate in the Vietnam War.

When he completed the film, he was nearly bankrupt.

Today, about 30 years later, his filmography boasts hundreds of documentaries and more than 12 feature films. Among Esparza’s most recent work was producing “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” which starred Halle Berry and earned him an Emmy nomination this year for “outstanding made-for-television movie.”

“The movies that I make are an examination of what it means to be human,” said Esparza, who also produced “Selena” starring Jennifer Lopez.

Esparza also has turned his attention to projects other than filmmaking. For the last three years, he has been working to build theater chains in Latino communities to showcase Latino films.

If the films are popular within those communities, he said, positive publicity will spread to other groups and increase awareness of Latino issues.

For Esparza, success has come after years of ignoring critics who discouraged him from making films about Latino issues. The key is to take responsibility for all your actions, even if they result in setbacks, he said.

“When you try, you are giving yourself psychological permission to fail,” he said. “Do or don’t do.”

Speech senior Dinorah Sánchez, an aspiring screenwriter and producer, said she was encouraged by Esparza’s success in the movie industry.

“Hollywood is going to tell me (they need) to be more mainstream,” Sánchez said about her scripts, which have all addressed Latino issues. “(But) there’s going to be an audience for my films.”

Though Junior Martinez is studying to be an engineer, he said he still found Esparza’s advice inspirational.

“It’s possible to succeed being Latino — he’s done it,” said Martinez, a McCormick junior. “If he can succeed in his field of study, then I definitely can too.”