Tenoch Huerta’s New Production Company To Make Films For Underserved Audiences

Tenoch Huerta’s future is undoubtedly bright, and the Mexican actor wants to share it with as many people as possible.

The “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” actor is launching his own production company to do projects for underserved audiences.

As he told TheWrap during the sundance 2023 Film Festival, Huerta wants to continue to build on his career success and thus help others.

“Now I have the opportunity to choose better and more projects,” Huerta said. “I’m planning to make my own company to produce bilingual content.”

“In terms of representation, what we want to show to the people about us, the representation of us, made by us, which is the important thing,” he added. “It is not just [enough] to be in front of the camera, but who is telling the tale, who is the storyteller? That, for me, is more important, even more than to be in front of the camera.”

And if there is anyone who knows the impact that cinema has, it is Tenoch Huerta.

For Tenoch Huerta, cinema is an inherited passion

A native of Ecatepec de Morelos, Mexico, Huerta grew up watching movies with his father, who was a fan of the seventh art.

In fact, it was his father who enrolled him in an acting course with María Elena Saldaña. Later, Huerta studied acting with Carlos Torres Torrija and Luis Felipe Tovar.

But for Tenoch Huerta, acting on the big screen would have a different meaning throughout his life.

Of indigenous descent, Huerta said in a 2022 interview for Rolling Stone Mexico that bullies at school made fun of his name as a child, causing him to struggle with his own name.

As he grew up and researched the origins of his name — which has its roots in the Nahuatl language — his identity took on a different light.

“When researching the origin of my name, I discovered that Tenoch is the name given to the stone prickly pear, the fruit of the prickly pear that grows on stones and represents the human heart,” Huerta explained. “It took me almost my whole life to conquer my name, but there it is,” he said. “The truth is, now I really like it.”

The importance of bringing cinema to other audiences

After training as an actor, Tenoch Huerta made a name for himself in Latin American television and film.

Then, in 2018, the actor landed a role as real-life drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero in “Narcos: Mexico.”

As he told Vice, this role helped him transition to Hollywood.

Now, with his role in the sequel to “Black Panther,” his story seems to be coming full circle.

Namor, his character in the film, is “protecting his culture. He’s protecting his city and the things he loves the most: his memory, legacy, and heritage. I think everybody, all around the world, can understand his motivations.”

“This is the first superhero with an Indigenous background, a Mesoamerican background,” he told Los Angeles Times. “It’s a brown-skinned guy. This ancient culture is in his roots. And he speaks like me. We are making history. I told them, ‘Let’s do something to be proud of.'”