Pan
American Round
Table of
San Benito
What follows is an excerpt from The Pan American Round Table, Lois Terry Marchbanks, Avon Behren Press, 1983, (pg. 121).
The Pan American Round Table of San Benito, sponsored by Brownsville Table I, was chartered in 1948 with Eleanor Randolph as first President. Each month one country of the Americas is studied in depth. Decorations are products and authentic articles of the country being covered. Roll call response is a brief news note about each country.
The Table maintains close ties with the Pan American Student Forum of the local high school and provides a scholarship each year. Student Forum members annually prepare a typical Spanish meal for a meeting or provide a dance program. The local junior high school is named for a late member, Berta Cabaza. The public library receives appropriate books from the Table. One member, Consuelo Gonzales, wrote and produced for the public the posada as she remembered it from childhood in Guadalajara. Another, Clara Zepeda, researched the pastorela given, along with land, to her husband's family by the king of Spain. This she produced for several years at Christmas time as part of the Valley's cultural heritage.
Members have been active beyond the local level. Those who have held State office are Anita Garcia, Ruth Dodson, and Norma Adams. On the Alliance level, Drucilla McCormick and Helen Thompson have been Zone Directors. At the Alliance Convention in Lima, Peru, in 1976 Drucilla McCormick was named Pan American Woman. A children's library in Masaya, Nicaragua, is named for her. There are frequent across-the-border exchanges of social courtesies. San Benito members attend the national conventions of Tables in Mexico and Alliance conventions. This Table is a strong supporter of Alliance purposes.
