The opening paragraphs of the first chapter of Orsi’s The Madonna of 115th Street create an indubitably convivial and joyous atmosphere. The day of the festa has arrived and all of Italian Harlem is bustling with activity. It was exciting to read the descriptions provided by Orsi as they enabled me to visualize a neighborhood full of lively conversations, various foods, bright decorations, and smiling inhabitants. In addition, the deep veneration of la Madonna during this period of time helps to characterize the Italian immigrants as staunchly devoted to their faith and beliefs as Orsi describes all of Little Italy going to great lengths to pay tribute to the Virgin.
After reading Chapter 1, Italian Harlem seems like an ideal place to live. It is depicted as a place where a sense of community and belonging is pervasive and where strong ties to the homeland are maintained. This is why I was very surprised upon reading the following chapter, which talks about all the banes that afflicted Little Italy at the time. Orsi paints a picture of a neighborhood in which sidewalks are cluttered by garbage, streets are dominated by gangs and juvenile delinquency, and residents are forced to live in squalor. There is a clear discrepancy between how the immigrants envisioned their lives in America and reality.
Orsi states that The Italian immigrants were traveling away from the world of “la miseria,” which was riddled with overpopulation, disease, and over taxation. Sadly, however, the quality of life in East Harlem at the time was nowhere close to matching the saccharine expectations held by these immigrants. At the end of the second chapter, Orsi goes on to say that despite the incongruity between their dreams and reality, the Italians of East Harlem grew to love their home, a place where everyone shared in both the joys and tribulations of each other and a place where cultural ties were strongly clung on to. At first, I wondered how anyone could come to so dearly love a place plagued by so many issues, but I went on to realize that many immigrant groups, not just the Italians, faced a similar situation upon settling down in various neighborhoods in the city. Although the quality of life was definitely not as great as it could be, these immigrants were able to overlook this reality by finding strength and hope in one another.
