Cinco Puntos Press

Cinco Puntos Press was founded in 1985 by two writers, Bobby Byrd and Lee Merrill Byrd. Cinco Puntos Press is an independent press that specializes in literature from the area of the United States-Mexico border, Mexico, and the American Southwest. The name Cinco Puntos, literally translated as "Five Points" in Spanish, is named for the neighborhood in which the press was founded and to emphasize the Mexican influence in the El Paso, Texas area. Cinco Puntos' first published work was Winners on the Pass Line and Other Stories, by Dagoberto Gilb, and was released in 1985.

Cinco Puntos Press was founded in 1985 by two writers, Bobby Byrd and Lee Merrill Byrd . Cinco Puntos Press is an independent press that specializes in literature from the area of the United States-Mexico border, Mexico, and the American Southwest. The name Cinco Puntos, literally translated as "Five Points" in Spanish, is named for the neighborhood in which the press was founded and to emphasize the Mexican influence in the El Paso, Texas area. Cinco Puntos' first published work was Winners on the Pass Line and Other Stories, by Dagoberto Gilb, was released in 1985.

Prior to his involvement with the publishing operation, Bobby Byrd published several volumes of poetry and related literature. This work included Places is & Memphis Poems (1971), Pomegranates (1984), and On the Transmigration of Souls in El Paso (1992). He received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellowship for Creative Writing/Poetry in 1990, and was recipient of the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship and Residency that same year. Mr. Byrd's wife, Lee Merrill Byrd, is also a writer. She is best known for a collection of short stories, My Sister Disappears (1993). Susan Byrd, whose work has been published under the name Susannah Mississippi Byrd, assisted in the editing of The Late Great Mexican Border: Reports From a Disappearing Line. This work was published by Cinco Puntos Press in 1996.

Cinco Puntos Press positions itself as a voice for the Southwest Borderlands region. It claims a deep commitment to literature in the U.S.-Mexico Border region, with emphasis being placed on the areas covering southern New Mexico, El Paso, and the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Much of their work has been assisted through the awarding of grants to their operation, and the operation has also benefitted through earning several literary awards. Cinco Puntos received the American Book Award for excellence in publishing in 1999, and the business was inducted into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame. In 1997, Cinco Puntos also received the Dwight A. Myers Award by the Rocky Mountain Publishing Association for excellence in regional publishing. They also received five publishing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and three similar grants from the Texas Commission for the Arts. The Border Regional Library Association, in addition to awarding Southwest Book Awards for three books through the 1990s, presented Cinco Puntos Press with a special Southwest Book Award in 1993 for outstanding achievement in bringing national recognition to Southwestern literature. Cinco Puntos also received two grants from the Fideicomiso para la Cultura de M?xico y Estados Unidos, which was funded jointly by Belles Artes and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution is the chief distributor of the Press' inventory to the book trade market. Cinco Puntos' book marketing, however, is not limited to bookstores. Direct sales, especially through means of the Internet starting in the 1990s, have strengthened the Press' educational sales component. Among its best selling group of books are bilingual and children's books. Most noteworthy was La Llorona, the tale of the Mexican Weeping Woman, written by well-known Southwestern storyteller Joe Hayes. Cinco Puntos published La Llorona in 1987. This was the Press' first children's book, and it marked a new direction in its publishing focus. Over 70,000 copies of the book were printed through the year 2000.

In addition to juvenile titles, Cinco Puntos has published works of authors from Mexico, including Ricardo Castillo of Guadalajara and Luis Humberto Crosthwaite of Tijuana. This cross-cultural exchange between Mexican authors and publishing houses initiated by Cinco Puntos Press is rare in the world of publishing, and has allowed new works of literature exposure to markets heretofore unseen.

Cinco Puntos was featured in national headlines in 1999 after the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) abruptly cancelled a grant of $7,500 that was awarded to publish a book entitled The Story of Colors. The cancellation took place because the book was written by Subcommandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista guerrilla movement in the Mexican state of Chiapas. NEA Chairman William Ivey claimed he withdrew the grant because he was concerned that the monies awarded would be distributed among the Zapatistas. The resulting publicity that arose from the controversial decision was published in the New York Times, and proved beneficial for Cinco Puntos. Spurred on by the incident, the first printing of The Story of Colors sold 5,000 copies in three days through advance orders. The Press immediately made plans for a second printing of 8,000 books in the wake of their successful early sales, and their publishing efforts were underwritten by a larger grant of $15,000 from the Lannan Foundation based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Cinco Puntos continues to draw praise for their wide portfolio of children's books and other specialty publications. Using the bilingual nature of the U.S-Mexico border and the appeal of excellent literature across Anglo and Latino cultures, this concern has taken a leadership role in the improvement of literature and letters coming from the desert Southwest.