EL PASO
PAN AMERICAN ROUND TABLE
History
What follows is an excerpt from The Pan American Round Table, Lois Terry Marchbanks, Avon Behren Press, 1983, (pg., 108).
The (60) sixty-year-old El Paso Pan American Round Table was founded in 1921 by Mrs. M. P. Schuster, an immigrant to this country from Hungary.
The El Paso group was an outgrowth of the earlier Amigo Listo (ready friend), formed in 1915 by Adolph Schwartz, El Paso Merchant and founder of the Popular Department Store. During that revolution-torn-time, Schwartz gathered together citizens from both sides of the border to collect food, clothing and funds for distribution to Mexican citizens forced to flee their country.
First President of Amigo Listo was Mrs. Albert Madero of Juarez, with Mrs. Schuster as secretary and Amadila D. de Calderon, Treasurer.
Mrs. Schuster's daughters, Regina S. Reinemund and Margaret S. Meyer, and a granddaughter, Gretchen Reinemund Rabb, have served as directors of the El Paso PART. Incoming director to be installed in May, is Lolita Caldron, daughter-in-law of the treasurer of the original Amigo Listo.
Of the 150 Round Tables, the El Paso branch is unique in that half of its membership of 150 active members is from the United States and half is from Juarez, Mexico. There are an additional 130 sustaining members in the El Paso Table. Monthly meeting sites alternate between Juarez and El Paso.
The Group annually presents scholarships to the University of Texas at El Paso to students from El Paso and from Juarez. A yearly entertainment for members from Mexico is El Te de Amistad (friendship tea), given by past directors of the El Paso Table.