Lakewood's Pan Am Fiesta began with a handshake

Lakewood is often explained through the Lakewood Plan, the contract-services model that shaped how the young city handled local government. The Pan Am Fiesta gives the city a warmer people story to place beside that civic one.

The event began in the mid-1940s with a handshake between Dr. Walter Montano and Jesse Solter. The idea was simple and generous: build friendship and goodwill with Latin American neighbors. Over time, that small beginning grew into Lakewood’s longest-running community event.

The Fiesta also became one of the older community-based celebrations of Pan-American cultures and peoples in the United States. In 1956, the U.S. Information Agency recognized it with a Certificate of Merit, which shows how seriously the effort was taken beyond Lakewood itself.

For a modern resident, the story opens a side of Lakewood that is easy to overlook. The city was planned quickly, filled with postwar homes, and organized around practical public services. But it also made room for music, food, cultural exchange, and a public promise of welcome. That combination feels very Lakewood: orderly on the outside, community-minded underneath, and proud of a tradition that started with two people deciding neighbors should know each other better.