CONSCIOUS, DATA- DRIVEN EXPANSION AND DEI In terms of internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives among their management and staff, they have recently started looking more broadly at their hiring procedures. They initially relied on personal referrals and connections to bring people aboard and are now seeking new revenue streams to fund conscious growth. “DEI is central to our personal and professional lives, so we look at both qualitative and quantitative data to see what we’re doing well and where we need to grow,” says Zarazua. These initiatives began before George Floyd’s murder and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Zarazua explains that while the murder received well-justified attention, Pochino Press’s founders and affiliates are from communities where these issues are nothing new. drilled into us from a young age to get involved in our communities, including challenging institutionalized inequities. Our team’s impetus for founding the press is rooted in both the traumas and organized struggle we learned about and experienced in our day-to-day lives,” says Zarazua. “In our day jobs, we’re all veteran educators and activists as it was Pochino Press scaled back its business in 2020, doing fewer publications and events to strengthen its business model and practices. “We want to have a strong enough financial model that we’re tangibly impacting our communities by contributing to the economic ecosystem in a meaningful way. We hope our work helps address the conditions that led to George Floyd’s murder and that of others like him,” says Zarazua. One way they have recently pivoted is by refocusing on Bay Area writers. “Aside from anthology contributors and cover artists, we’ve shied away from publishing creatives outside of our geographical area. We simply don’t have the infrastructure to properly support them. In our early years, we tried, but it simply wasn’t sustainable.The vibes were good, but financially it was challenging,” Zarazua says.
COLLABORATION WITH AUTHORS Pochino Press focuses on working with authors and developing personal creative relationships that are not merely transactional. “Writers, artists, and readers can read that energy. In some ways, just treating people with basic respect has been key to our success, but I certainly don’t want to minimize people coming to a place where they hear people talking in familiar ways and other cultural markers that make people feel at home,” says Zarazua. The press collaborates as much as possible with the writers and artists on small details and larger matters, from choosing paper types for the books to planning release parties. They say the personalized approach and the agency the authors have while working with Pochino Press helps them to attract writers and artists with impressive histories as a small press. Cornelius Harris, contributing writer and manager for the Underground Resistance record label, says, “I’d say it begins with relationships, that we’ve known you for over 20 years now, and the work that everyone at Pochino has done previously is impressive and inspiring. But beyond that, an independent press is a place where new and different ideas can be codified and shared in a unique way. Pochino has demonstrated this in their prior work, but more directly, through Daniel Zarazua, what we do with Pochino is much more collaborative than what would happen anywhere else.”
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