Robert Rodriguez is partnering with Comcast to launch a Latino-themed network…

The 43-year-old Mexican-American director—whose first feature film El Mariachi was recently selected for preservation by the National Film Registry—and FactoryMade Ventures executives John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa are creating El Rey, an English-language general entertainment network aimed at Latino audiences.

Distributed by Comcast, the nation’s largest provider with more than 22 million subscribers, El Rey will offer a mix of reality, scripted and animated series, movies, documentaries, news, music, comedy and sports programming.

“This partnership with Comcast signals an important moment for the Latino community in this country – we are passionate about creating a wildly entertaining destination that we can be proud of by appealing to both Latino and mass market audiences,” said Rodriguez and Fogelman in a joint statement.

The network has entered into an agreement to launch by January 2014.