Petra Cacho

Petra Cacho, age 89, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on September 2, 2025, in La Mesa, California. Born June 7, 1936, in Spring Valley, California to Herminia and Antonio Cacho, she was one of 7 children.

She received her high school diploma from Chula Vista High School and a bachelors degree in Communications from San Diego State. She went on to earn a masters degree in Special Education from Cal State San Bernardino.

After college she worked on the Regis Philbin show in San Diego and then later began a career as an educator. She had three children and subsequently settled in Claremont, California.

Always looking for opportunities to excel, she earned 5 different teaching credentials. The last one enabled her to be a school counselor, which she enjoyed enormously, serving as a role model to the many Latino students she advocated for.

She promoted quality education, including bilingual education, and the wellbeing of children, especially for those who had special needs and were low-income.

She taught for almost 25 years and finished teaching at Don Julian Elementary School in La Puente, California. She went on then to teach education courses at the University of La Verne. After she retired, she moved back to San Diego.

She was an avid and excellent cook and believed in alternative health. She made her own yogurt, wheat bread, and put wheat germ in her tortillas. She made unforgettable tamales, enchiladas, frijoles de la olla, Spanish rice, albondigas and menudo. No recipes. Before she took her children to church on Sundays, she would prepare tortillas by hand to cook and have for breakfast when they returned. She taught catechism and was always seeking meaning and spiritual connection and shared that with everyone around her.

She believed in helping people, and whenever she could help someone in need - mind, body or spirit, she would, without hesitation or judgement. She celebrated your strengths and provided encouragement and support.

Everything she touched turned green and her garden was always a sea of blooming flowers – dahlias, pansies, poppies, ranunculus, irises, sunflowers, hydrangea, plumeria, hibiscus, and birds of paradise. There were gigantic air plants and so many orchids that she kept blooming all year. This beauty was a perfect reflection of her inner one. She loved nature, always cared about the environment and used gray water for her garden.

She is survived by her three children, Vincent Magaña (Julie), Sari Shimamoto, (Terry), and Aizita Magaña (Francisco Henson), and 5 grandchildren, Julia and Mateo Magaña, and Christy, Jeremy, and Marissa Shimamoto. She is also survived by three siblings, Irene Goodell, Delia Talamantez (Roger), and Rosa Frommer. She is proceeded in death by her parents and siblings Antonio Cacho, Emilie Cacho and Luis Cacho. She was a pioneer, a woman of faith, a striver, a survivor, smart, curious, perceptive, funny and generous. Most of all she was loving and loved life. We will hold her forever in hearts. Her legacy lives on in her grandchildren, whom she adored.