Hernando D. Silva and Elvira O. Squadrilli

[his parents]                       [parents not known]

Hernando D. Silva was born on August 4, 1909, in Bogotá.  He was educated in Brussels, Belgium, having receiving a scholarship from the Jesuit College of San Bartolomé in Colombia.   He joined his mother and younger brother in New York in 1929, and there, in 1935, married Elvira O. Squadrilli  Elvira was born in NYC on August 16, 1913, the daughter of an Italian father and a French mother.  Hernando and Elvira adopted a son, Christopher.

Hernando died of lung cancer on December 21, 1980, in Guanajuato, Mexico and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC.  Elvira died on April 17, 1996, in Santa Barbara Convalescent Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA where she had lived since 1983.  She was described in her obituary as being “active in the arts and an avid tennis player”.  Her ashes were interred at Arlington National Cemetery on May 23, 1996, following a Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Santa Barbara on April 23, 1996.  Her obituary appeared in the Washington Post dated May 27, 1996.

#  Child of Hernando Silva and Elvira Squadrilli:

i               Christopher Alfred Silva was born in either 1949 or 1950, in Germany and was adopted as an infant by Hernando and Elvira.  He grew up in France, Switzerland, Chile, and El Salvador and also spent part of his childhood in Alexandria, VA.  He graduated from Columbia University and received a master’s degree in public administration from American University in Washington, DC.  He also served two years in the Army in an airborne unit.

He was a Latin American analyst for Air Force intelligence at the Pentagon from 1975 to 1990, then worked with the Federal Aviation Administration as a civil aviation security analyst.  In either 1984 or 1985, he married Barbara A. Tritapoe of Alexandria.

Chris died of cardiorespiratory arrest on June 18, 1998, at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA after collapsing at his home in Alexandria shortly after a jog.  He was an avid runner who participated in several marathons and was a member of the Association of Old Crows and of Columbia University Alumni Association.  An obituary appeared in the Washington Post dated June 27, 1998.