Esther Bonilla Read Mexican American World War II Oral History Collection

Esther Bonilla Read was born in Calvert, Texas in the 1930’s. She graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in 1958, and later a master’s degree from Corpus Christi State University. She began teaching in 1958 and taught in the public and private schools, including college.

She wrote in her spare time, while raising her four children. Read published the book From the Porch Steps…Little Stories to Warm Your Heart and Make You Smile, co-authored Kindergarten Papers, published a story in Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, and contributed to magazines, Texas Highways, International Reading Association, and LULAC News. She has also written columns in the Corpus Christi Caller Times, San Antonio Express and Dallas Morning News. She has written stories in anthologies including Puentes, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 2006, and the Corpus Christi Writers (2018 – 2021).

Read’s latest publication, After the Blessing: Mexican American Veterans of WWII Tell Their Own Stories, is about the Hispanic Catholic ritual of the parents blessing their children before they ventured on their own into the world. The sixty-six stories, mostly from the men serving in WWII, include the segregation the WWII veterans experienced in their youth, lack of food to eat during the Great Depression, and the trauma they experienced in the war. The book is divided into four parts: European/Atlantic Theater, Pacific Theater, Prisoners of War, and those not in the war but were Also Affected.

In the February 21, 2022, Corpus Christi Caller Times, John Oliva, wrote about Read being in the YWCA Corpus Christi Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement award of the 2022 Y Women in Careers Awards. Read said of her book, After the Blessing, “I hope readers realize the Mexican Americans fought just as hard as the others did and they deserve all the rights and privileges any other veterans received. They are heroes too.” The collection is a series of transcripts and mini-cassette tapes of WWII individuals that Read interviewed and edited for the book, After the Blessing: Mexican American Veterans of WWII Tell Their Own Stories, published by TCU Press, Ft. Worth, Texas in 2022.

Read was married for fifty-seven years until his death. She has four children and five grandchildren.