Ada Bello was born in Havana, Cuba, on November 6, 1933; her father was Cuban-born and her mother was born in Portugal. She attended the University of Havana from 1953 to 1956, migrated to the United States in 1958, earned a degree in chemistry at Louisiana State University in 1961, and then moved to Philadelphia in 1962. Bello was a medical researcher and laboratory assistant; she worked for the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the 1960s, Bello was a leader of the Philadelphia chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Homophile Action League; she also marched in the Fourth of July Annual Reminder demonstrations at Independence Hall. Bello died on March 31, 2023. In 1993 she sat down with Marc Stein for an oral history interview. You can find a transcript of that interview here: Philadelphia LGBT History Project, 1940-1980, by Marc Stein. Bello also contributed an exhibit to OutHistory: Reed Erickson, Pioneering Transgender Activist and Philanthropist, 1917-1992, by Ada Bello.