Overview
Texas Partners of the Americas is the oldest Chapter working to help Latin America through its partnership with Peru. The idea for Partners of the Americas came from a Texan, Dr. Jim Boren, who in the early 1960’s was director of the U.S. Agency for International Development mission in Lima, Peru. At that time, with the Cold War’s pressures, the U.S. Government’s “Alliance for Progress” policy strongly supported assistance for Latin America. Boren’s idea was that a private volunteer committee in a state of the U.S., working with a counterpart in a Latin American country, could strengthen the overall aid effort by carrying on small projects that would directly involve people of both countries and thus create stronger ties.
Boren persuaded friends in Texas to start up a people-to-people program with his friends in Peru. Edward Marcus, then Board Chairman of Neiman-Marcus, became the first Chairman of Texas Partners. Marcus and Boren spread the idea to other states. They also arranged for the U.S. Department of State to fund travel for volunteers working on projects. Funds for the projects themselves came from the Agency for International Development and from private donors and organizations. The committees of the various states and countries organized themselves, eventually forming their present international organization, Partners of the Americas, with headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Leadership
Chapter Email: [email protected]
| Position | Name | Contact Information* |
| President | Iliana Queirolo Diaz | Contact |
| Vice-President | Carol P. Fimmen | Contact |
| Treasurer | Lyda C. Arevalo-Flechas | Contact |
| Assistant Treasurer | Vanessa Rojas Diaz | Contact |
| Secretary | Patricia Ferguson | Contact |
| Secretary | Linda Ramirez | Contact |
