"Militant Attitudes" and "Superficial Expressions of Goodwill": Politics of Inclusion in Texas Pan Americanism

Shocked, Florence T. Griswold opened the December 3, 1939, edition of the newspaper La Prensa to find her private correspondence published, and her international collective, the Pan American Round Tables of Texas, outwardly discredited in a scathing article. The editorial author, Alonso S. Perales, a renowned Mexican American civil rights activist, publicly disavowed Griswold, her organization, and meaningless support and allyships from Pan Americanist groups entirely. This article details the rise of inclusion politics amongst Mexican American activists and Anglo American reformers, and illuminates the tensions rooted in ideological hemispheric unity developed amidst racial subjugation in early twentieth-century Texas.