Angela Bambace (February 14, 1898, – April 3, 1975) was an

Italo-Brazilian Italian Brazilians ( it, italo-brasiliani, pt, ítalo-brasileiros) are Brazilians of full or partial Italian descent. Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with full or partial Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo bei ...

-American labor union organizer for the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female memb ...

for over fifty years.

Life and career

Angela Bambace was born in Santos, Brazil, to Giuseppina Calabrese and Antonio Bambace, immigrants from Leonforte, Sicily and Cannitello,

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, respectively, who had settled in Santos, Brazil. The family migrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1901 and settled in

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, ...

. As a teenager, Angela and her sister Marie followed their mother into garment work, like most Italian immigrant women in New York City. Together they also attended meetings held by

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the econ ...

, and members of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

and International Ladies Garment Workers Union in their neighborhood. Angela became a union member, organizer, staff member, and officer of the ILGWU from 1917 to 1972. Bambace first became a member of th
Italian Waist and Dressmakers' Local 89
in 1917 and served as a key organizer in the dressmakers' strike of 1919. In the 1920s, she lived with her mother, sister, and brother-in-law—the Sicilian anarchist, journalist, and labor organizer Nino Capraro—Nino and Marie's two daughters Athena and Clytia, and Angela's two sons Philip and Oscar, in a two-family home in Flushing, New York. Angela lost custody of her sons to her first husband, Romolo Camponeschi, a waiter from Rome, in 1927, due to her labor activism. But she remained very close with both sons and their children throughout her life. In the late 1920s she met and fell in love with Luigi Quintiliano, an Italian immigrant anarchist and tailor by trade who served as secretary to the Italian Committee for Political Victims and played an active role in the Sacco and Vanzetti defense. The two would remain together for their entire lives. In the early 1930s, the ILGWU sent Bambace to organize garment workers in Baltimore. This temporary position became permanent in 1936 and by 1942, she was appointed the manager of the newly created Maryland-Virginia district of the ILGWU. She maintained that role after the district was reorganized as th

In 1956, she became the first Italian American woman elected Vice-President of the ILGWU and a member of the General Executive Board. Before joining the ILGWU, Bambace worked as an organizer for the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Indus ...

. Throughout her life, she was involved in a variety of organizations, including

Americans for Democratic Action Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is a liberal American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA views itself as supporting social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting pr ...

, Baltimore Community Action Commission, United Nations Association, Southern Conference Education Fund, Maryland Commission on the Status of Women, and the Jewish Labor Committee. Bambace retired from the ILGWU in 1972 and died from cancer in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1975.

Sources

ILGWU. Communications Department biography files. 5780/177. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University.
* Guglielmo, Jennifer. ''Living the Revolution: Italian Women's Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. * Scarpaci, Jean (Vincenza). "Angela Bambace and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union: The Search for an Elusive Activist." In ''Pane e Lavoro: The Italian American Working Class.'' Ed. George E. Pozzetta. Staten Island: American Italian Historical Association, 1978. *

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 2 ...

(April 5, 1975
"Angela Bambace, 77, Officer of I.L.G.W.U. 16 years, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

External links

* Finding aid for th
Angela Bambace papers, Immigration History Research Center Archives
University of Minnesota Libraries. * Finding aid for th
Anthony (Nino) Capraro papers, Immigration History Research Center Archives
University of Minnesota Libraries.
Angela Bambace's grandson, musician Tim Camponeschi aka Slim Man, remembers her Pasta Piselli
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bambace, Angela American trade union leaders 20th-century Italian women International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders American people of Italian descent 1898 births 1974 deaths Brazilian emigrants to the United States People from East Harlem