Creative Trouble Making

Born in El Salvador in 1932, Andrade lived in Guatemala from age 3 to 15. Waves of people from elsewhere made the NYC garment industry run for over a century. Throughout, immigrant women, though often underestimated, were essential to the factories, the union, and the fight for safety laws. A surprising number of workers arrived with sewing skills, as Andrade did, and with traditions of political activism that helped shape new arrivals' participation in the labor and progressive movements.