Simon Salinas (born October 8, 1955) is a California politician. He was a member of the California State Assembly district 28 from 2000 to 2006. His district included all of Salinas and Watsonville. Before going to the Assembly, Salinas was a County Supervisor, a City Council Member, a community college instructor, and an elementary school teacher. Salinas is a Democrat. He left the assembly in 2006 because he was termed out. He surprised the political establishment by not challenging Republican incumbent Jeff Denham for the California State Senate district 12. Salinas returned to local politics and was elected to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 2006, representing District 3. Salinas has lived most of his life in the Salinas area, growing up around agribusiness. He has one son. Background Family life Salinas was born in Slaton, Texas, one of twelve children of migrant farmworkers. His family originates from the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, where his mother attended school until the 3rd grade. His father had no formal education and originally came to the United States under the Bracero Program in the 1940s, living and working in Kansas. He returned to Mexico, married, and years later returned with his wife and children to the United States in the 1950s, settling in Texas. This was the beginning of his experience as a farmworker over a 15-year period of fieldwork that included many migratory moves between the states of California and Texas, working in cotton and orange fields and whatever else was in season. Later, when Simón and his family picked up contract labor work, he picked strawberries in the central coast region of California at the age of 9. Due to the seasonal farmwork they followed, Simón moved constantly and never fully settled for long periods of time in one place. For his parents, this pattern continued until their retirement in 1985. Education Simon Salinas finally settled permanently in the city of Watsonville, California, at the age of 18, so that he could focus on his education. He graduated from Watsonville High School in 1974, and then went on to Claremont McKenna College to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Latin American Studies in 1978. In 1981, Simón earned a Bilingual Teaching Credential from San Jose State University and in 1984 graduated with a J.D. from Santa Clara University Law School in California. Teaching Salinas credits