Simón Silva (Born 1961) was born in Mexicali, Mexico. While he was still an infant, his family immigrated to the US and settled in Holtville in Imperial Valley, an agricultural town in California. Silva spent much of his young life as a migrant farm worker. He says that this experience instilled in him the value of an education as well as inspiring much of his artwork. Silva received an A.A. degree in Art from Imperial Valley College, and he received his BFA in Illustration from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1996, he designated the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives as the permanent repository for his personal papers, including professional files and artwork. In 1992, his work was chosen to represent the US in the Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month Art Exhibit at the Los Angeles City Hall. A year later, Silva had a solo exhibition at UCLA as part of the Raza Art Series. In the same year he was commissioned to do a portrait for the cover of Time Magazine.
One of his paintings, along with those of several other artists, is on permanent display as a part of an American-Russian art exchange in Petropavlovsk, Russia. He has lectured at many grade schools, high schools and universities about the pride in one's self and culture and the importance of education. Silva has also done work for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Association of Mexican American Educators, the Bilingual Foundation for the Arts, and the Migrant Student Worker Program.
