Birthplace of the Bona Sisters
LIM
The Triangle Waist Company: one of the "sweatshops" of Early 20th Century New York
We are in the early 1900s, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, owned by Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, is the largest producer of "shirtwaists"—a type of white blouse, often pleated, with a high collar, which was very popular among women at the time. The Triangle factory, located at 23-25 Washington Place in the heart of Manhattan, was one of the largest clothing manufacturing establishments of the era. With about 600 workers, most of whom were very young women, it occupied the top three floors of the Asch Building, a ten-story building that still exists today and is now part of New York University, declared a national monument. It was one of the many "sweatshops" in early 20th-century New York, where working conditions were abysmal: shifts were exhausting due to the excessive number of hours, with the prospect of extremely low wages—ranging from $6 to $7 a week—performed in unhygienic, unsafe conditions, and involving child labor exploitation. The owners of Triangle also outsourced work, with wages at the discretion of subcontractors who pretended to ignore the plight of internal and external employees subjected to systematic exploitation. The union presence was minimal because most of the workers were immigrants with little or no command of English and were intimidated by an unfamiliar environment. However, in 1909, an incident sparked a spontaneous strike by almost all Triangle employees to demand better protection of their rights and compliance with new safety laws. Many young female workers organized into groups and union committees, such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and the Women's Trade Union League, led by Ukrainian immigrant worker Clara Lemlich. But it was only after the 1910 fur industry strike that the demands of clothing sector workers were partially met, establishing minimum working conditions and periodic inspections. Despite these advances, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union managed to gain acceptance in many factories but not at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
The Birthplace of the Bona sisters
In this house, in 1877 and 1879 respectively, sisters Rosa and Caterina Bona were born. Their story is one of women who emigrated to the United States seeking a better life, only to meet a tragic death instead. On March 25, 1911, in New York, they were among the 146 victims—121 of whom were women—of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory fire: one of the worst disasters in America since the Industrial Revolution, which led to the establishment of International Women's Day, celebrated every March 8. To preserve the memory of this tragedy, in 2014, the birthplace of the Bona sisters in Sambuca was included by the Centro per il Restauro della Regione Sicilia in the LIM Charter (Carta dei Luoghi dell’Identità e della Memoria).
The Birthplace of the Bona sisters among the Places of Identity and Memory (LIM)
The birthplace of the Bona sisters in Sambuca, recognized as a site associated with prominent figures of early 20th-century Sicilian emigration, has been designated by the Sicilian Region as one of the LIM (Places of Identity and Memory) in the section dedicated to historical and cultural personalities. This significant heritage site is the focus of a valorization project, presenting an opportunity to define development strategies for the hosting community.
The tragic fire of the Triangle Waist Company factory in New York
On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a terrible fire, probably caused by a lit cigarette and easily fueled by fabric scraps and dust, broke out on the upper floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York, causing the death of 146 of the 500 people who worked there. Most of the workers, aged between 13 and 22, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Germany, Hungary, and Italian immigrants (many between 12 and 14 years old) who earned between $7 and $12 a week, depending on their tasks. The fire caught them unprepared: the owners, ignoring the insurance company's recommendations, had not established any fire prevention or drill programs; the building lacked hydrants; stairs and fire exits, mandatory by law in the USA after the great Chicago fire of 1871, were partly missing, partly blocked or bolted; on the 9th floor, there were only two doors, to inspect employees as they left work, one of which was always locked. The factory was a veritable trap in case of an accident. Some workers saved themselves by fleeing via elevators, which soon broke down; others took refuge on the roof of the nearby building or along the stairs, almost immediately engulfed in flames, while the fire department ladders were too short to reach the upper floors. Among the trapped workers, several tried to escape through windows or doors - many of which were even locked from the outside - or sought refuge inside the factory. About sixty of them preferred to jump out the windows rather than die in the flames; about twenty workers died when the fire escape collapsed due to the excessive weight. Despite the promptness of their intervention, the firefighters' hydrants reached only the 6th floor. The fire broke out at 4:30 PM. By 5:15 PM, the firefighters had already extinguished it, but it was not enough to save the 146 victims (129 women and 17 men) from the blaze. In just half an hour, hundreds of workers lost their lives, swallowed by the violently spreading flames or suffocated by the smoke.
The testimonies
Journalists and passersby, eyewitnesses to that terrible spectacle, have allowed us to reconstruct the events: William Sheperd, a journalist for United Press, gave a telephone report of the tragedy, which was immediately telegraphed to the major national newspapers. He described the dozens of girls at the windows of the upper floors of the building, surrounded by a hell of fire, screaming and choosing to fall rather than be consumed by the flames. The account of a witness to the terrible blaze was included by Leon Stein, journalist and writer, in his book "Out of the Sweatshop: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy". Fifty years after the tragedy, Stein included in his book "The Triangle Fire" the testimonies of the surviving workers, who unanimously believed that the doors had been deliberately locked by the factory owners for fear that the workers might steal materials or take too many breaks.
The turning point and the establishment of International Women's Day on March 8
The sacrifice of the fire victims was not in vain: the city of New York took stringent measures to reform safety procedures, the garment industry unions gained more strength, and the entire nation implemented reforms to improve working conditions and safety. From that tragic event, every year on March 8th, International Women's Day celebrates women and their struggles for affirmation in the workforce, in perpetual remembrance of the tragedy of March 25, 1911, and other milestones in the fight for women's emancipation. On February 20, 2011, the New York Times reported that, a century later, researcher Michael Hirsch had completed the list of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire victims, providing definitive names for those previously unidentified: many were women of Eastern European Jewish descent; about forty were of Italian origin, including the two Bona sisters. The tragic event also inspired songs like "The Ballad of the Triangle Fire," a folk song composed by singer Ruth Rubin in 1968, and Ester Rizzo's 2014 book, "Camicette bianche. Oltre l'8 marzo".
