“The homes of Italian Harlem had been scrubbed clean, the windows had been washed and the floor polished. Residents had bought and cooked special foods in anticipation of the arrival of their guests.” (1)
Someone reading this now would think why make such a big deal over this, just because people are coming over why do you have to put on such a magnificent show and make sure that everything is perfect. Well while I was reading this, I couldn’t help but think of my mother who does the exact same thing. The description in the first several pages of The Madonna of 115th street reminded me of my experience in Portugal preparing for the Easter celebration; not only did our home need to be completely spotless, but we had to prepare enough food to literally feed the entire village that we lived in. I guess to many people who aren’t that religious, they would see this as a waste of time, but having this similar experience to the people of Italian Harlem I was able to understand why it was so important to prepare for the festivities. It was interesting to read about a different cultures take on celebrations, since the only festivities that I’ve ever been exposed to is that of my own culture.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand why someone would be so devoted to something unless you too are devoted to something as well, so something that also stood out to me in the reading was the description of how people would ask the Madonna to be healed and when they would be healed, as a sign of appreciation for what she had done, they would carry a wax candle with them during the procession. “The weights of the candles chosen by the people corresponded to the seriousness of the grace they were asking, and this was carefully specified in the vows made to the Madonna. A bad problem or a great hope required and especially heavy candle and weights could reach fifty or sixty pounds or more.” (3). It was interesting to read this because I had never heard of this before. My family has passed down stories to me of people who have done something similar, and had asked Our lady of Fatima to help them through a tough situation, and if she helped them they would promise to walk a path that was a mile long on their knees the whole time to show their appreciation for what she had done. I found it very interesting to read this and learn about a similar, yet different way that this culture shows their gratitude towards their religious figure.
Of course another thing that stood out during this reading was the description of the living conditions for the Italians in Harlem. “So Italian Harlem was a theater of extremes” (48). It definitely was, it was filled with hard working people who had left their mother country in hopes of attaining wealth and living a better life, but instead they lived in the worst of conditions. Crowded filthy tenements, and living off an unreliable wage were characteristics of these immigrants’ lives, and yet they still had this strong community. This was something that I found really hard to imagine. How were these people who lived in such horrible conditions still able to appreciate the place where they lived so much, enough to even when they eventually moved out want to come back and even when they died be buried there.
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