Chief Financial Officer of the Organizacion Ramirez Group, Enrique Ramirez Magaña Courtesy Organizacion Ramirez Group

It all started in Morelia, Michoacan more than 50 years ago. Enrique Ramirez Miguel opened the "Cine Morelos," the first movie theater in what would grow into Latin America's largest cinema chain, Organizacion Ramirez Cinemas.

The chain has 950 cinemas, making it the ninth largest in the world, and 70 million customers a year. It is represented in every Mexican city with more than 250,000 inhabitants; usually with its flagship multiplex Cinepolis, and controls about 40 percent of the Mexican cinema market.

The theaters are modern, spacious, attractive, and clean with up-to-date equipment and a colorful barrage of refreshment concepts -- for example, a soda fountain called "Sundaes" and a creperie called "La Crepe Parisienne." The group is currently building 150 further cinemas, many with stadium seating, and some pioneering the concept of first-class cinema in Mexico (Cinepolis VIP).

And now the Ramirez family, which still controls the group, is starting something new again in Morelia -- Tres Marias, a world-class resort center featuring a 27-hole PGA golf course of the Jack Nicklaus type. The resort will also have an Equestrian Club with a riding path of four miles, tennis, squash, soccer, swimming, spa, restaurant, and numerous other facilities.

For Enrique Ramirez Magaña, Tres Marias should lure tourists, particularly Americans, back to Morelia, the capital of the State of Michoacan, northwest of the megalopolis of Mexico City (the Federal District and the State of Mexico).

"Before, a lot of American tourists used to come to Morelia," says Ramirez. He feels tourists will appreciate Morelia's tradition of music and its natural beauty. "Please, come to Michoacan," is the message, he says.

The overall development, covering 1,200 acres (almost one-third of that for the golf course alone) and including housing lots of more than an acre each, is due for completion by Easter 2004.

This new development in their hometown is just the latest diversification for the Ramirez Group. In Morelia, they already own TV Azteca Michoacan and the newspaper Provincia, and some hotels, including Holiday Inn.

The organization feels that the current state administration, under Governor Lazaro Cardenas, unlike the previous administration, is pro-business and helps investors, Enrique Ramirez says.

The organization is present in Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala with movie theaters. It is the domestic cinema chain, however, which remains the main business. The rapid growth in capacity and customers over the past several years put to rest the fear that the growth in VCRs would kill theater attendance. While the Ramirez Group is the leader nationwide, it is only second in the country's main market, Mexico City, with a 26 percent share, after Cinemex, which has 43 percent of the market in the capital.

The organization is still family-owned and managed by the three sons and nine grandchildren of the founder, Enrique Ramirez Miguel.