October 28, 2011.
My beautiful, sweet and kind father Ricardo Isaac Tatto y Lara passed away early this morning in Mexico City. He was an exemplary father and husband and an extraordinary human being.
He was born in Merida, Yucatan on July 30, 1920 the first child born to Ricardo Tatto and Angela Lara Enríquez.
He enjoyed and treasured his life as a child playing with his friendsand siblings in Merida and in the port city of Progreso Yucatan in his family home which he called La Hacienda. He often talked about those happy times during family meals and other occasions when he was relaxed in our home and after a hard day of work. Happiness and childhood did not last long for him however. His father left the family when my father was only a child and he, being the oldest, quickly stepped in to take charge of a large family of four siblings, his mother and grandmother. He dreamed of becoming a pilot but that was not to be and instead at a very young age and with only a few years of secondary school left Merida to find work in Mexico City. He simultaneously worked and studied and obtained a technical certificate as a radio and television technician. He worked for Sears Roebuck of Mexico fixing radios and televisions. He later became a salesman first in an advertising firm and next in a car company. He provided for his immediate and extended family for 30 years. In his later years and as a lover of classical music andof many other kinds of music he spent many hours enjoying and preserving his records.
My father’s main ambition for us was that we do well at school and be honest in life. He instilled in me, my sister and my brother the desire to succeed academically and emotionally. He believed that it was especially important for women to have a high level of education that would allow them to be independent and fulfilled on their own merit. He was very serious about school. He often walked or drove us there every morning, checked our homework and grades daily and held my younger sister, brother and me to very high expectations. One important goal my father had was to see his children be the first in his family to attend college. We all did and he often said that he was very proud of us.
I just saw my father about a month ago and we both knew time was short; he was as kind and calm and sweet as always. I could not stop kissing him. I wish I still could. He will always be with me in spirit and in the inspiration and support he gave me to live a good and honest life.
He is survived by my mother his wife of 53 years Teresa de Jesus Cano Trueba de Tatto, his daughter Maria Teresa Tatto Cano and son in law Peter Carr Hickman of East Lansing, MI, Maria Isabel Tatto Cano de Venegas of Cuernavaca, Morelos (deceased in 1997), and his son in law Jorge Venegas Aguilera, and Ricardo Tatto Cano of Mexico City. He has six grandchildren Alethia Venegas Tatto, Jorge Eduardo Venegas Tatto, Lauren Maria Hickman (Tatto), Emma Teresa Hickman (Tatto), Aileen Tatto , and Cathy Tatto.
Maria Teresa Tatto
East Lansing, Michigan