Ratto's International Market

Giovanni Battista Ratto was born in the province of Alessandria, in 1868. At the age of 13, inflamed with the spirit of emigration, he sailed as a cabin boy on a four masted schooner; destination: Buenos Aires. He received his his 1st inspiration about South America from his sister Virginia. For few years, she'd been living there with her husband, a cattleman named croce. With the aid of the Croces, Giovanni became a Gaucho. A popular word of that period which seemed to fit the energetic and restless young Ratto was Argonaut, meaning, adventurer engaged in a quest.