Esther V. Cordova May was born in Cuba, New Mexico before World War II. As a child, she experienced the pre-industrial, rural life as prior generations of her family had done in Cuba and surrounding villages. Esther earned her Bachelor's degree in history at Mills College in Oakland, California and a Masters degree in Folklore at the University of California, Berkeley. Since returning to Cuba nearly forty years ago, she has continued her research of verbal accounts of pre-World War II life and her collection of photographs started in 1972 as a student research scholar. Esther is the author of the highly acclaimed Antes: Stories from the Past, Rural Cuba New Mexico, 1769-1949, published by Sunstone Press in 2011.
