23 Facts About Adelia Silva

Adelia Silva was a Uruguayan educator, writer and social activist.

Adelia Silva became the first Afro-Uruguayan to earn a teaching degree.

Adelia Silva moved to Montevideo in 1956, but was transferred numerous times as a result of racial discrimination, ultimately returning home to Artigas.

Adelia Silva filed a complaint with the National Council of Primary Education, which led to widespread media coverage of her treatment, heightening awareness of the racial and gender divides in Uruguayan society.

In 1960, Silva took an examination and became the first person of African descent in Uruguay to serve as a primary school inspector.

Adelia Silva worked as an inspector in various departments and taught both high school and normal school courses through the 1970s.

Adelia Silva volunteered as a teacher for students with learning disabilities, boarders in care homes, and prisoners at the local jail.

Adelia Silva died in 2004 and is remembered for her role in changing the perception of freedom and equality in Uruguay.

Adelia Silva never knew her father, and her mother was a dependent of the Bianchi family under the patron system that existed after slavery was abolished in Uruguay.

Adelia Silva's mother died when she was nine months old and she was raised by Bianchi.

Adelia Silva worked as a rural teacher in the Artigas, Canelones, Colonia, and Florida Departments.

Adelia Silva adopted another daughter, Marta, and raised the girls as a single mother at a time when most women were economically dependent on their spouse.

Adelia Silva's attendance was made possible by a federal scholarship, which provided her with student teaching employment while she attended classes.

Demoralized by the treatment she had experienced, Adelia Silva resigned her scholarship and returned to Artigas in 1956.

Adelia Silva was urged by civic groups and teachers' unions to return to Montevideo to teach, but she remained in Artigas, having returned to her rural school as principal.

In 1960, Adelia Silva took an examination that enabled her to become the first person of African descent in Uruguay to serve as a primary school inspector.

Adelia Silva taught history of education, pedagogy, psychology, and sociology at the Instituto de Formacion Docente de Artigas and volunteered as a tutor for students with learning disabilities and for boarders at the Hogar Rural de Varones and inmates at the Centro Carcelario in Artigas.

Adelia Silva retired as a teacher and began a second career as a writer.

Adelia Silva traveled three times to Europe, visiting France, Monaco, Spain, Switzerland, and the Vatican.

In 1987, her colleagues from the local high school financed the publication of a book Adelia Silva co-wrote with Mary Suarez de Simon, a fellow teacher, Hacia el siglo XXI con la quimica en accion.

In 2000, Adelia Silva was selected as Uruguay's representative to the Teleconference of Latin American Poets.

Adelia Silva was awarded the "Rocco Certo" prize of the Sicilian Chamber of Commerce for a poem written in Italian from the Italian Society of San Jose in 2001.

Adelia Silva died on 10 July 2004 in Artigas from complications of severe asthma.