Silva’s tireless work ethic was ingrained in him as a child. Growing up in what he describes as “pretty rough neighborhoods” in Los Angeles—South Central, East L.A.—he watched his father, Fernando, toil in multiple jobs and gradually work his way up from a busboy to an established cook.
“It’s hard work,” Silva said. “Working 12-16 hour shifts in 100-degree kitchens, just scrapping by. But he’s always been a hard worker. I can’t recall one time when my dad was ill, missed work for any reason at any of his jobs. He was always working 2-3 jobs. He’d sleep for a couple hours and get back to work. He had a relentless work ethic.
“One thing that my dad taught me, too, is that there’s no shame in being poor. The shame is in doing things that are not right. He felt through hard work, you would eventually overcome. And for him, it was never about where he would get in his life or anything that he did. It was like that with both of my parents. It was about opportunities they were creating for us and then, ultimately, their grandkids.”
Silva’s mother, Teresa, had the same work ethic as her husband.
“In California, my mom always worked pretty much in sweatshops, sewing by the piece,” Silva said. “You sew 10 garments for a dollar. She’d take a couple buses to downtown L.A. where these sweatshop factories were and she’d do that for 8-10 hours. And then she would bring bags of garments home on the bus to sew more at home. She’d feed us and then she’d go back to sewing.”
There were quite a few mouths to feed. Silva is the middle of seven children; he has one sister and two brothers who are older than him and one sister and two brothers who are younger.
“I remember being a little kid and my mom would hardly eat,” Silva said. “She wanted to make sure that we had enough. She always kept a jar of change by her sewing machine so that I could get a couple quarters and I could go to the corner store and buy a bag of chips. That’s my parents in a nutshell.”
Seeking a safer environment for their children, Fernando and Teresa Silva moved their family to Illinois when Gustavo was in sixth grade. They lived in an apartment in Rolling Meadows for a few months before buying a home in Carpentersville.
“Six kids and two parents living in a three-bedroom house,” Silva said, “and that was a step up from where we’d been and the neighborhood we’d lived in.”
Middle class was “a step up”
Silva’s parents and three older siblings were all born in Mexico. He was the first child in his family born in the United States. The Silvas lived in poverty, but it’s not something that Gustavo realized until they moved to Illinois.
“Where we lived in California, everybody was the same,” Gustavo said. “Everybody was poor. We all got free lunch. We were all in the same boat. There was kind of a comfort in that.
“Carpentersville is not affluent; it’s middle class. But middle class was a step up for us. That’s when you start to realize that you’re poor and that maybe the jobs that your parents do are not considered to be as good as the jobs that other people’s parents do. It’s not as glamorous. My dad works in a kitchen and my mom sews. That’s when we realized we were poor. You get a free lunch and maybe other kids don’t. That’s when you start to realize, ‘Man, we are different.'”
Silva concedes that those differences made him uncomfortable as a teenager. But years later—he turned 48 last Saturday—he marvels at the adversity his parents overcame.
“I’m ashamed to say that during those middle school years I was not proud of who I was and where I came from and what my parents did,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older and graduated high school and started mentoring my brothers, I started to realize all the sacrifices that they made. I started to be very proud of them—to the point now that I almost boast about where I came from and what my parents did. I’m extremely proud of them, and as an adult I’ve been able to verbalize that with them.”
New path led to job with Bears
After graduating from Judson, Silva sought a teaching position at the high school level. Instead, he landed a job as a physical education instructor at an elementary school. Although he was hesitant at first, he ended up loving it.
It was through that position that Silva first had contact with the Bears. He visited Halas Hall a couple times as part of a “Fuel Up to Play 60” initiative that encourages kids to exercise and live healthy lifestyles. Silva never thought about the possibility of actually working for the Bears—until he saw a job listing the team posted for manager of youth football and community programs.
“Just out of curiosity I looked at it and saw all the requirements and all the skills and I kind of checked them off one-by-one and I thought, ‘You know what, I could do this,'” he said.
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