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A group of children are performing a dance on the stage at the Pan-American Recreation Center. There are two teachers and a piano player on the stage with them and several people in the audience.
1960-05-17
Media documenting the Oswaldo A.B. Cantu/Pan American Recreation Center from the Austin Files collection.. A community center for youth, teens, and adults, the Cantu Pan-Am Center has been serving East Austin since 1956 with a variety of sports, recreational, and day camp programs. The Pan American Recreation Center was opened in June 1942 as the first Latin American Recreation Center in Austin and run under the auspices of the Federated Latin American Club and directed by the Austin Recreation Department. The name "Pan American Recreation Center" was chosen by the executive committee during a center naming contest. On September 7, 1956, a new Pan American Recreation Center was formally dedicated at 2100 East 3rd Street, just west of the old location and where it currently exists today. The building adjoins Zavala School and was built at a cost of $155,261. The Hillside Theater was later built and completed in June 1958. Cantu served as a boxing instructor, having founded the Pan American Boxing Club beginning in 1956, when boxing matches were held at the city coliseum. Referred to as “Oswaldo Cantu” in some of the records and “A. B. Cantu” in others, onlookers would not be able to piece together that he ran the boxing program with the city at the Pan American Recreation Center until he was moved to South Austin as of September 10, 1980, due to budget cuts. He returned as a Presiding Judge of the election site in 1981. Running a prolific boxing program and advocating for the youth is why the community chose Oswaldo A. B. Cantu as an icon, and that is why the center was renamed to honor him on his 66th birthday.
Ten elderly women and three men sit around a table at the Pan American Recreation Center for a United States citizenship class. A double sink and cupboards are in the background.
1961-04-19
View of one side of the Pan-Am Rec Center Boxing Room. Boxers and trainers exercise by stretching, shadowboxing, and beat punching bags. Sparring ring is visible in the foregrond. Jackets hang on hooks on the left. Clock on the back wall reads about 6:50.
1959-01-28
View of the side of the Pan American Recreation Center at 2100 East 3rd Street. Swing sets are behind the building. The previous Pan Am Rec Center existed at 3rd and Comal Streets.
1956-09
Instructor showing boy how to use a saw on a piece of wood at the Pan Am wood shop.
1959-03-30
A group of adults sit around a table and read from "Elementary Reader-English" books during an English lesson at the Pan Am Rec Center.
undated
A group of children are performing a dance on the stage at the Pan-American Recreation Center. There are two teachers and a piano player on the stage with them and several people in the audience.
1960-05-17
Children, aged about 10-13 play flag football at the Pan Am Recreation Center. A few boys have jerseys that say "Pan Am Aces" on the front; the rest play in plain clothes.
1966-11
Trio of mariachi musicians at the Pan Merican Recreation Center, the first Latin American Center (opened June 1942). Mariachi wear sombreros and panchos. Two men play guitarrons and the middle mariachi plays a Mexican vihuela.
1965
Young girl playing piano at a recital. Children are seated on the floor in the background.
undated
A young woman reads a story to five children at the Pan Am Rec Center library. They sit at a circular table with stacks in the background.
undated
Children paint papier mache elephants at the Pan American Recreation Center at an arts and crafts class. Two elephants sit on the table, nearly done. An open jar of paint and several towels sit on the table top. Two boys and three girls surround the table.
undated
Children in the stacks at the Pan Am Rec Center library. The shelves are packed with books. Two girls reach for books on shelves within reach. A third boy stands on a child's chair for reach.
1966-11
Children reading at the Pan Am Rec Center library. Three children sit at a child's table with books covering the tabletop in front of them. Older children browse books from a shelf in the back. An adult looks on.
1966-11
Youth dancers at the Pan American Recreation Center
undated
Five women are in the kitchen at the Pan-American recreation center cooking together. There are buñuelos on the table and each of the women is wearing a corsage.
1969-12-12
Santa Claus visits children at the Pan Am Rec Center Tiny Tot Christmas party. A girl sits on Santa's lap while the rest of the children wait and watch from tables around the room. They wear paper reindeer hats and have candy canes.
1966-12
A baseball team in two rows with the coach . There are two bats a glove and a ball on the ground in front of them and they are outside at the Pan-American Recreation Center.
1961-06
Children pet a calf at Hillcrest Farms on a Tiny Tot field trip hosted by Pan American Recreation Center. A boy pets the calf while a young girl feeds the calf a treat. Another boy and girl look on.
1968-04-15
A band performs on a stage before a large audience seated on the lawn at the Pan American Recreation Center Hillside Program.
1968-06-20
Exterior rear of the Pan American Recreation Center at the opening on 2100 East 3rd Street. The ground is not yet seeded and playground equipment is visible behind a fence in the right.
1956-09
Pan American Recreation Center's "Sweetheart" for their Invitational Softball Tournament with the trophies.
1961-06
Pan American Recreation Center's skating class in the Zavala Gym. A line of seven boys, aged 9 through 12 hold on to each other's shirts while skating in a line through the gym.
1959-03-30
Interior of the basketball court in the gymnasium at the opening of Pan American Recreation Center at 2100 East 3rd Street.
1956-09
