SILVA Mistaken at times as 'silver' or 'Sylvia', the name of the course is derived from the man who founded and developed SILVA, the method. Jose Silva was born nearly 80 years ago, in southern Texas, in a small town called Laredo, near the border of Mexico. An American of Mexican ancestry, he was four when his father died, leaving him to help care for two younger brothers and a sister. Jose became a newsboy at four and a shoeshine ...