Three decades ago, a predominantly Latino neighborhood was torn down to make way for the Los Angeles Music Center. Since that time, with rare exceptions, a Latino presence hasn't been very visible on the site.

Only 2% of Mark Taper Forum subscribers are Latino. And only one play by an American Latino writer--"Zoot Suit" in 1978--has been presented at the Taper.

This weekend may mark an end to that era. On Saturday, a procession celebrating El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) will virtually encircle the Center and then ascend to the Music Center Plaza for an afternoon of holiday activities, representing "the living reclaiming life in honor of the dead," according to Josephine Ramirez, the event's producer.

Although it won't be stated in so many words, Ramirez said, "we're doing it in homage to them (the previous residents of the area) and their neighborhood."

The procession is part of two days of events, beginning with an evening program on Friday, designed to attract Latinos to the Mark Taper Forum. But this weekend is only the beginning. It will kick off the Taper's Latino Theatre Initiative, a four-year project for which the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund is providing $1.4 million--the largest grant the Taper has ever received from a source other than the Music Center itself.

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Jose Luis Valenzuela--who brought his Latino Theatre Lab to the Taper after its former sponsor, the Los Angeles Theatre Center company, collapsed in 1991--will direct the Initiative. He became a full-time Taper staff member as part of it.

Valenzuela cited the dearth of Latino programming when asked why Latinos haven't come to the Taper. "You only go where you're invited," he said. "When (Latinos) know the Taper is doing something for us, they'll go." And after Latinos see "a serious commitment," they'll go to non-Latino Taper programming as well, he predicted.

So look for a lot more Latino programming in coming years. The Latino comedy group Culture Clash will play the Taper later this fall, and Luis Valdez's "Bandido!" is scheduled for next spring.

The Latino Lab is researching a collaborative piece about Latinos in Los Angeles that Valenzuela hopes will be ready for the 1994-95 season. He also plans to prepare a new dramatized version of the old story of "La Virgen del Tepeyac" for the holiday season in 1994, though he's not sure it would be performed at the Taper. It might be done in a venue closer to Latino audiences.