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“They say you’re not allowed to have pinatas that look like real people, but in Mexico, we do it all the time.” — Pedro, Napoleon Dynamite (Fox Searchlight)

Entertainment congloms, like Disney and Viacom, are suing a cottage industry of local pinata makers for their carboard and tissue paper renditions of popular characters. Trademark enforcers claim the pinata makers are, guess what, infringing on intellectual property.

It was easy for Disney investigators to find Santoyos’ pinatas — they hang in the streets for all to see. But the pinateros work quietly, often in backyards and garages.

Denise Esparza and her husband produce about 200 pinatas a week in their South Los Angeles backyard, among cackling hens. She works surrounded by thousands of pounds of cardboard strips and tissue paper, while caring for her two toddler children and giving directions to about a half dozen employees who help to make the likes of Shrek, Elmo, SpongeBob, Nemo and Snow White.

Esparza begins by making the skeleton of the character from cardboard strips. Then she covers the strips with newspaper dipped in a mixture of flour and water. The newspaper is then covered with tissue paper. Small pinatas sell for as little as $5. She takes special orders for the more complex forms such as R2D2 from “Star Wars,” which can fetch more than $25.

Check out the story , by Jennifer Delson, reporting for the Los Angeles Times.