Henry Imler March 26th, 2007

The Madonna of 115^th Street was not at all what I was expecting. When I first heard about the book during the first class period, I expected a long and detailed analysis of the rituals that took place during the festa, perhaps accompanied with small excursions into the Italian Harlem’s culture. What I got was quite the opposite; long and detailed analysis of the Italian Harlem’s culture and the domus, with many small excursions into the festa. Despite this distance from my expectations, I feel that I am more intimately acquainted with the setting and practice of the Madonna of 155^th Street.

I also appreciated his explanation of terms in the introduction of the book, especially his discussion of power and the meaning of “popular religion.” Sometimes there is a feeling that popular religion is the opposite of established religion; merely a rebellion against the establishment consisting of rejected practices. Here, a much more agreeable definition was used, where the emphasis was on a synthesis of the established religion and the religious values of the people at large. More importantly, it was a dialectic between the people and the culture, a way to protest and resolve tensions. Orsi drew this out in his analysis of the domus and the festa.

I am sure that several fellow students will ask why any of this really matters, or how this wonderful exposition of the domus and the Madonna of the Italian Harlem, which does not really exist anymore, is nothing but a historical curiosity. Orsi wrestled with this several times throughout his introduction(s) and his work. He deems it necessary to connect to work to the larger whole of American history, least it be striped of meaning. How particularistic is this work? Is it representational American Christianity? Can one apply notions of the domus to and religiosity to members of the Disciples of Christ? Not really. Can one narrow the application to other Catholics? Orsi goes to great length to show the differences between Catholic groups, across class lines, such as the established clergy and the laity; and ethnic/economic lines, such as the established Irish Catholics and the poorer Italian Catholics. In light of this, is the work reduced to merely a study of a particular group in a particular place in (a) particular time(s)? I do not think it is, and I think that Orsi pointed this out in several places. He described the linkage of these immigrants and their story of the conflicts within their society is instructive in viewing the history of immigrant groups. One can see parallels between the internal and external views of immigrants of the early 1900’s and today, despite differences in geographic origin. Looking at the book through a broader historical context, one not only obtains a better view of the people studied, but an addition is made to the understanding of the development of the United States. As such, there is a “so what” in this story.

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