Jenny Lizarraga, Highlighted By Influential Women, Advances Bilingual Literacy And Representation Through Publishing

FL, UNITED STATES, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — With More Than 17 Years of |International Book Industry Experience, the Founder and CEO of Cinco Books is Expanding Access to Diverse Children’s Literature While Championing Bilingual Education, Inclusion, and Community Empowerment

Miami, Florida – Jenny Lizarraga, an engineer, economist, publishing executive, and advocate for literacy, is making a meaningful impact on the international book industry through her leadership of Cinco Books. Based in Miami, Florida, Jenny has dedicated more than 17 years to publishing, international relations, market development, and educational access, building a career around one central belief: books have the power to connect people, strengthen communities, and help children see themselves represented in the world around them.

As Founder and CEO of Cinco Books, Jenny leads an organization focused on curating and supplying Spanish- and Portuguese-language titles for libraries, schools, and educational institutions. Her work responds to an important need in the United States: ensuring that children and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds have access to high-quality literature that reflects their identities, languages, experiences, and traditions.

Jenny’s professional background brings together business, engineering, economics, finance, and digital marketing. She earned an MBA in Corporate Finance from Florida International University’s College of Business, studied Digital Marketing at Northwestern University, and earned an Industrial Engineering degree with a specialization in Food Science from Zamorano University. She has also pursued professional education in Digital Marketing Strategies and leadership-related areas, creating a multidisciplinary foundation for her approach to entrepreneurship and publishing.

Her professional journey has reinforced her conviction that persistence, continuous learning, and service are essential to meaningful success.

Turning Experience Into Purpose
Jenny attributes much of her success to advice she received from her grandmother during high school: work hard, study, earn a diploma, discover what truly moves you, find your passion, and never give up.

That message became a guiding philosophy throughout Jenny’s career. Rather than viewing individual positions simply as destinations, she has approached each professional experience as an opportunity to learn something new and take another step forward.

Every job, she believes, has something to teach. Even when a position is not intended to become a lifelong career, the experience can provide knowledge, relationships, perspective, or skills that become valuable later. Jenny has carried that mindset into entrepreneurship, consistently treating opportunities as steps toward a larger purpose.

Her career ultimately led her toward the international publishing industry, where she identified significant gaps in access to Spanish-language and multicultural children’s books in the United States. Recognizing the importance of culturally relevant literature, she established Cinco Books to help libraries, schools, and educational organizations reach the communities they serve more effectively.

Through the company, Jenny has developed relationships with libraries and publishers across the United States and Latin America. These partnerships have helped create greater access to books in multiple languages while supporting educators and institutions seeking literature that reflects increasingly diverse communities.

Building Relationships Through Service
For Jenny, successful business leadership extends far beyond products and transactions. Customer service has been one of the most important elements of her professional philosophy.

She considers herself a strong advocate for personalized customer service, and Cinco Books has earned a reputation for developing close relationships with its customers, customizing orders, and providing individualized support. This approach allows the organization to understand the unique needs of libraries, schools, and educational institutions rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model.

Jenny believes this service-oriented approach is especially meaningful because the work has a direct impact on communities. Knowing that the books she and her team provide can help children discover new stories, connect with their heritage, develop language skills, and understand cultures beyond their own gives her work a deeper sense of purpose.

She describes herself as fortunate to work in a field she genuinely loves, allowing her professional ambitions and personal values to intersect.

Championing Representation and Bilingualism
One of Jenny’s most important areas of advocacy is ensuring equity in access to literature for diverse communities. While the publishing industry has made progress, she believes authentic representation remains an ongoing challenge.

For Jenny, representation is not simply about having diverse characters appear in books. It is also about ensuring that children and families have access to stories that authentically reflect their cultures, languages, experiences, and perspectives.

She believes bilingualism should be viewed as an advantage and that children across the United States should have opportunities to develop proficiency in more than one language. In an increasingly interconnected world, exposure to different languages and cultures can help people better understand one another and live together within diverse communities.

This philosophy is reflected in Cinco Books itself. Jenny’s team is bilingual and multicultural, allowing the organization to bring lived experience and cultural understanding into its work.

Jenny also emphasizes dignity. She wants Hispanic families and other diverse communities to feel represented and recognized not only as audiences for literature but also as contributors to American society and culture.

Her professional memberships reflect this commitment to literacy and cultural access. Jenny is a member of the American Library Association, REFORMA, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), and the American Translators Association.

Mentoring the Next Generation
Jenny’s commitment to service also extends to developing young professionals.

She believes emerging professionals should approach their careers with curiosity, persistence, and an openness to learning. Her advice to young women entering the publishing industry is straightforward: persist, find what moves you from within, discover your passion, and never quit.

At Cinco Books, Jenny actively supports young professionals as they develop their own careers. She encourages members of her team to discover their voices and pursue their interests. The organization even has a book club, with her assistant taking a leadership role in organizing it while studying literature.

For Jenny, mentorship is about more than giving instructions. It is about creating opportunities for people to discover what they can become.

She hopes to continue serving as a mentor to young professionals who want to build successful and meaningful careers, just as others helped guide her throughout her own journey.

A Broader Vision of Service
Service, representation, dignity, empathy, and cultural understanding are among the values that guide Jenny both professionally and personally.

Her inclination toward service extends beyond publishing. She has even considered entering public service in the future, reflecting her broader desire to contribute to communities and create positive change.

At the heart of her philosophy is the belief that understanding other people is essential to building stronger communities. Literature can play a unique role in that process by giving readers opportunities to encounter unfamiliar cultures, perspectives, languages, and experiences.

Jenny’s work demonstrates how entrepreneurship can become a vehicle for social impact. By connecting publishers, libraries, schools, educators, families, and children with multicultural literature, she is helping create pathways toward greater cultural understanding.

Her work also reflects the importance of seeing business success and community impact as complementary rather than competing goals.

Extending Compassion Beyond Publishing
Jenny’s commitment to service extends beyond literacy and education. She is also passionate about animal welfare and rescue, a cause that inspired her to establish the Cinco Books Foundation to support stray cats in South Florida.

The foundation represents another dimension of Jenny’s belief that leadership carries a responsibility to serve. Whether she is helping children access books that reflect their identities or supporting vulnerable animals in her community, her work is rooted in compassion and action.

After more than 17 years in the international book industry, Jenny continues to move forward with the same philosophy her grandmother instilled in her: work hard, pursue education, find what inspires you, and never give up.

Through Cinco Books, she is transforming those principles into a larger mission—one that places literacy, bilingualism, cultural representation, and human connection at the center of leadership.

As Jenny Jenny Lizarraga continues to expand her influence through publishing, speaking engagements, educational forums, and community initiatives, her vision remains clear. She wants books to serve as tools for empowerment, understanding, and inclusion, while creating opportunities for the next generation to see themselves, their cultures, and their possibilities reflected on the page.

Learn More about Jenny Lizarraga:

Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/jenny-lizarraga

Influential Women

Influential Women provides a platform where women from all backgrounds can connect, share their perspectives, and create content that empowers themselves and others. Through storytelling, thought leadership, and creative expression, Influential Women amplifies voices that inspire change.

Editorial Team
Influential Women
email us here

Media gallery

About The Author

Written By: EIN Presswire