Santiago Ribeiro was born in Coimbra, Portugal. In his interview to Portuguese American Journal, Santiago Ribeiro says that one day his father brought home 40 art books from the library, and he was amazed by illustrations of impressionist and surrealist art forms. Ribeiro states that his first art lesson was looking through these exciting books. Studying illustrations made him fell in love with art and paintings. Ribeiro attended art classes at the Escola Avelar Brotero and Escola Superior de Educação of Coimbra but he dropped out of schools because he preferred to dedicate all his time to painting rather than going to classes. Santiago Ribeiro believes that he became a surrealist painter even before he knew what surrealism was.