Reading “The Madonna of 115th Street”, I was honestly surprised to see how deeply the devotion ritual mirrored not only the day-to-day experiences of the immigrant population of Italian Harlem, but their emotions as well. Their march through the streets represented their desire to make America their own. Their reverence of the Madonna paralleled their own respect for their mothers. And beneath it all, the constant in their lives that was the devotion assuaged any fears or guilt they may have had about ultimately venturing beyond the umbrella of their culture, whether in mindset or in physical distance. Since the devotion would always be there awaiting them, and they would faithfully return to participate, they could not really be doing anything so wrong in leaving. This tradition anchored them. I think that, above all, this latter emotion shows the true, deep importance of the devotion on a cultural level to the immigrants of Italian Harlem. The book makes a valid point in stating that the ritual allowed the people to play out their complex relationship to the domus, but I doubt that the people really consciously saw it that way. It seems more likely to me that this ritual gave them a chance to reaffirm not only their faith, which it undoubtedly did, but also, on some level, to reaffirm their commitment to the life they knew. As the book also explains, the people were exceptionally disoriented and even disillusioned when they came to America. Far from finding the paradise that they sought in coming, the immigrants encountered a culture that made difficult the practice of values that had kept them afloat for so long. This ritual let them know that their values, not only cultural but especially religious, were still with them—and that they could follow through in keeping them going. It was something concrete that could take their desire to be good Christians and good Italians beyond wishful thinking and into reality.