Ersilia Cavedagni (April 2, 1862after 1941) was an Italian-American anarcha-feminist activist, writer, and editor.
Biography
Cavedagni was born in
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
to Francesco and Enrica Amadei. At a young age she married the Bolognese anarchist Giulio Grandi, with whom she had a daughter, Edvige. The Grandi home became a gathering place for anarchists and provided shelter to militants such as P. Gori and Vivaldo Lacchini.
Cavedagni (then known as Ersilia Grandi) was one of the few women in the region to play a significant role in the movement. She is said to have had a remarkable and lively intelligence as well as "belle fattezze" (beautiful features). She wrote propaganda and gave speeches to crowds of proletarian women. From September 1894 to April 1895 she was imprisoned in Bassano Veneto for her political activities.
Sometime in the 1890s, she met and fell in love with
Giuseppe Ciancabilla Giuseppe Ciancabilla was one of the important figures of the anarchist movement who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century, along with F. Saverio Merlino, Pietro Gori, Carlo Tresca, and Luigi Galleani.
Life
According to histo ...
, a fellow anarchist and a friend of
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from ...
. The pair fled Italy together during the police crackdown on workers' movements. They spent two years traveling in Switzerland, Belgium, and France, during which Cavedagni published several essays and letters in ''La Questione Sociale'' (The Social Question). In one letter, she criticized women anarchists in the United States for failing to address the "woman question," writing, "If we were to have many anarchist women, oh, believe me, the movement would grow substantially....who does not remember the teachings of our mothers?"
In 1898, Cavedagni and Ciancabilla moved to
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Ernestina Cravello and joined the Teatro Sociale, a theater group that staged plays about women's emancipation. She published essays in ''L'Aurora'' and ''
Cronaca Sovversiva
''Cronaca Sovversiva'' (Subversive Chronicle) was an Italian-language, anarchism in the United States, United States-based anarchist newspaper associated with Luigi Galleani from 1903 to 1920. It is one of the country's most significant anarch ...
'', and edited several issues of ''L'Aurora'' after Ciancabilla was arrested for praising Leon Czolgosz (the man who assassinated President McKinley in 1901).
The couple moved to Chicago, then San Francisco, where they were closely monitored by the Italian authorities. Cavedagni was considered a "very dangerous anarchist," of "limited formal instruction but much audaciousness." Ciancabilla suddenly fell ill and died in 1904 at the age of 32.
What little is known of Cavedagni's later life is based on her correspondence and subscriptions to anarchist newspapers. She moved frequently, living at various times in Philadelphia, New York, Vancouver, and San Francisco. In 1912 she was living in Seattle with the French Anarchist Leon Morel. According to an Italian police report, she was still living "abroad" in 1941.