DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Pan American Round Table. Now settle in, because this one starts with a woman who knew something most people only read about in newspapers. Mrs.
Florence Terry Griswold was born in 1875, a native Texan, and she grew up along the Mexican border. That means when Mexico's 1910 revolution sent refugees fleeing for their lives, Florence wasn't watching from a distance. She was right there, providing aid to the people who needed it most.
That kind of experience has a way of shaping a person's thinking about what's possible when women of different nations reach toward one another instead of away. So here's what Florence did with that conviction. On October 16, 1916, she gathered twenty-one friends at the historic Menger Hotel, and together, twenty-two women in all, they founded the Pan American Round Table.
The mission was clear and it was ambitious: a union of women dedicated to mutual knowledge, understanding, and friendship among women of the entire Western Hemisphere. Not just Texas. Not just the United States.
The whole hemisphere. Now, you might wonder whether an idea that bold could survive past that first meeting at the Menger. Well.
By 1989, the movement had grown to 166 tables across 16 countries. Libraries received contributions. Scholarships were awarded.
The work was real, and it spread. Florence Terry Griswold passed in 1941, but what she and those twenty-one friends set in motion on a single October afternoon in San Antonio, that keeps going. One table became one hundred and sixty-six.
That's not just a good idea. That's a legacy.
What the marker says
Mrs. Florence Terry Griswold (1875-1941), a native Texan reared along the Mexican border, provided aid to refugees of Mexico's 1910 revolution. On October 16, 1916, she and 21 friends met at the historic Menger Hotel to found the Pan American Round Table, a union of women dedicated to mutual knowledge, understanding and friendship among women of the Western Hemisphere. Growing to include 166 tables in 16 countries by 1989, the movement has promoted its goals with such projects as contributions to libraries and awarding of scholarships. (1991)