Herman Sillas

View from the Pier, Stories from San Clemente Herman Sillas

This great gift book combines wonderful stories and paintings from a writer/lawyer/artist and San Clemente resident/fisherman who loves its pier. His stories get better each time you read them. This outstanding gift book has six sections: 1. Pier and Pier Pals: pier incidents and pals; 2. The Search: observations of life by an old fisherman; 3. Politics: reflections of a politically savvy former public official; 4. Changing Times: noted changes by the passage of time; 5. Family: its importance; 6. Among Anglers: memorable fishing tales. Each section reveals the extraordinary talents of the artist/writer. Sillas is a native of Los Angeles and a former scholarship holder at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles. He put his art career on hold while attending UCLA to pursue a legal career. During the 1960s he defended Chicano activists and entered the political arena. In 1975 Governor Jerry Brown appointed Sillas to serve as the Director of DMV. President Jimmy Carter then appointed Sillas as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California. He continued to paint and returned to the private practice of law in 1980. Sillas' move to San Clemente introduced him to the San Clemente pier. The openness and freedom he experienced there inspired him to write a monthly column he called a "View from the Pier." As an award winning painter, Sillas' art work has been described as "pictorial memories of a witness to social change." His writings convey more than that. He loves the pier and its gift of peacefulness, as he explores his cultural roots using an inquisitive attorney's mind, experienced eyes, and a pen that conveys emotion. Once you have read this gift book, you will no longer think of a pier as a walkway above the waves. It becomes a pathway of inspiration.