The first two chapters of “The Madonna of 115th Street” really struck me because it covered two very important themes that relate to the lives of immigrants: religion and social relationships. Before reading this, I had always thought Harlem has always been dominated by typical African Americans and Latinos, therefore I had no idea that there actually use to be a Italian Harlem and that the Jewish and Germans lived on separate ends based on wealth. I also thought it was interesting that the Italian immigrants were perceived to be the lowest working class, yet reading about their traditions and cultures made them seem so “rich”.
The role of religion is highly significant in the lives of these Italian immigrants and their extent of Catholic faith really astonishes me. For example, the practice of “[…] carrying wax models of the afflicted limbs or head […]” is for people who hoped to be healed or have been healed by the Madonna. (3) I then realized how important la Madonna was to this specific community. Another practice that I found interesting was people who sought after heavy and large candles that they believe would help them after donating to the church. These candles ranged from a variety of sizes and “the weights if the candles chosen by the people corresponded to the seriousness of the grace they were asking […]” (3) Fragile elder individuals even carried candles more than twice their size and weight. The dedication of these faithful individuals shows how strong their faith is, which also shows how easily connected immigrants can be to a certain entity after being placed in unknown territory. This also correlates to what we talked about in class regarding immigrant identity and their connection with this new country. I was not raised in a highly religious environment therefore seeing how dedicated these individuals are with their own faith is amazing.
