American Society of El Salvador

The American Society of El Salvador was founded in 1951. The purpose of this organization includes celebrating American traditions abroad and furthering gratifying contact among its members and with the Salvadoran community. We also do charity work through our Scholarship Fund which provides much needed funds for underprivileged Salvadorean students living in rural communities.

Our History

Our founding members were Ramsey Moore, Roberto Murray, Luis Chiurato, Walter Wirth, Gus Arenas, Joseph Martin, Antonio Mora, Edward Shahady,  Frank Becerra, James Rogers, Bert Laney, Robert Clark, Mortimer Cure, Frank Dalton, Arturo Saldana, George Massey, Terry O'Sullivan, Spike McLaughry, Joe Silberstein, Shelby Currie, William Wieland, John Young and Harry Hamlette. Originally, the organization met at the U.S. Embassy. Chester Stemp was president for many years. The previously named are honorary members, as well as Ellen Dutriz.

The Fourth of July celebration is one of our most important events. In the seventies, the picnic was held in the CocaCola recreation center on Lake Ilopango, and the Salvadoran Air Force used to do an airshow. In the eighties, on a few occasions it was celebrated in the American School. Later, the CocaCola recreation center became the site for the picnic for many more years again, until 2005.

The Society holds several family friendly events. The International School was the site for many Easter Egg Hunts in the nineties. The Union Church has been the place to have Thanksgiving for as long as many of us can remember.

The organization´s first website was born in 2007, and it changed in 2009.

We became members of the Association of American Clubs (founded in 2003 in Hamburg, Germany) in 2007.

In the past, the Society used to hold one or two trips a year to get to know El Salvador. Once it did a trip to see the Cerrón Grande (a dam). In 2009 we started doing more tourism activities (five so far).

If you have an interesting anecdote to share about the American Society history, send it to us: Contact us.

American Society Trivia: The Pledge of Allegiance used to be recited during American Society meetings and the Fourth of July Picnic.

Scholarship Fund

If you are interested in contributing to our scholarship fund, find out more about it!