Santa Lucia Luntana

Santa Lucia luntana is dedicated to the many Neapolitan emigrants who departed from the porto di Napoli towards far away lands (almost always towards the Americas). The lyrics are inspired by the sentiments that these immigrants experienced while growing distant from the land, fixing their eyes towards the picturesque panorama of the neighborhood of Santa Lucia, the last part of their homeland that they would be able to see, always growing smaller, on the horizon.

The song quickly became a success, not only in popular thought, and it was also very important at a social level because it brought to light the reality of emigration, a phenomenon up until then poorly understood by the official culture.

Napulitano « Partono ‘e bastimente pe’ terre assaje luntane… Cántano a buordo: só’ Napulitane! Cantano pe’ tramente ‘o golfo giá scumpare, e ‘a luna, ‘a miez’ô mare, nu poco ‘e Napule lle fa vedé… Santa Lucia! Luntano ‘a te, quanta malincunia! Se gira ‘o munno sano, se va a cercá furtuna… ma, quanno sponta ‘a luna, luntano ‘a Napule nun se pò stá! E sònano…Ma ‘e mmane trèmmano ‘ncoppe ccorde… Quanta ricorde, ahimmé, quanta ricorde… E ‘o core nun ‘o sane nemmeno cu ‘e ccanzone: Sentenno voce e suone, se mette a chiagnere ca vò’ turná… Santa Lucia, ………… Santa Lucia, tu tiene sulo nu poco ‘e mare… ma, cchiù luntana staje, cchiù bella pare… E’ ‘o canto de Ssirene ca tesse ancora ‘e rrezze! Core nun vò’ ricchezze: si è nato a Napule, ce vò’ murí! Santa Lucia, ………… »

Italiano « Partono le navi per le terre assai lontane… Cantano a bordo: sono Napoletani! Cantano mentre il golfo già scompare e la luna in mezzo al mare un poco di Napoli gli fa vedere Santa Lucia! Lontano da te quanta malinconia! Si gira il mondo intero si va a cercar fortuna… ma, quando spunta la luna lontano da Napoli non si può stare! E suonano!Ma le mani tremano sulle corde… quanti ricordi, ahimé, quanti ricordi… E il cuore non lo guarisci nemmeno con le canzoni: sentendo voce e suoni, si mette a piangere che vuol tornare… Santa Lucia, ………… Santa Lucia, tu hai solo un poco di mare… ma più lontana sei, più bella sembri… Ed il canto delle Sirene che tesse ancora le reti Il cuore non vuol ricchezze: se è nato a Napoli ci vuol morire! Santa Lucia, ………… »

Italy or East Harlem?

“For the most part, however, the continuity of faith and devotion which the parish journal made explicit was seen as a faithfulness to southern Italian traditions. The procession, we are told, recalled the great traditional religious processions of southern Italy, just as the Italian American societies consecrated to particular saints resembled those in Italy. The people were urged to relive their Italian past, to reaffirm their Italian selves during the festa. They were told to recall the little shrines to Mary scattered all over Italy–in valleys, beside rivers, deep in forests–and in this way to travel again the spiritual geography of their youth as they worship at the shrine on 115th Street. Though they could not actually be in southern Italy, they could behave as though they were there; indeed, there are times when the author of the parish bulletin actually confused the two places, so that it is occasionally difficult to tell whether he is writing about Italy or East Harlem.” [emphasis added]

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street, 168-169.

Journey to la festa

“The devotion to the Madonna of 115th Street met the emotional and moral needs of a population that had emigrated. In the earliest period, from its founding to the time of Dalia’s pastorate, which paralleled the first period of Italian immigration to the closing of the gates, when men were coming alone to New York, participation in the cult assuaged the complicated guilt of the immigrants. The devotion allowed men to be faithful to a woman on these shores as a sign of their faithfulness to the women they had left in Italy. Attendance at their mother’s house located the men in the familial strategy of immigration: they had come because of their families and they could remember and acknowledge this in the devotion. In the earliest writings extant at the shrine, the church is identified strongly as ‘mamma’s house,’ and la Madonna is called by the familiar and childlike ‘nostra mamma’. By initiating and attending the devotion to the Madonna of 115th Street, the men were declaring their faithfulness not only to their women but also to the moral and cultural system signified and dominated by women. The dimly glowing vigil lights which the earliest male immigrants kept burning in their rooms before images of the Madonna and the saints recalled the men to their moral culture: each night, with the sound of the elevated train coming in through the open windows, the noise of the street and the glowing of the gas factory’s stacks, the red lamps summoned the men to be faithful to the values of their people. The devotion and the festa confirmed this and allowed the men to act out their faithfulness.

…There is a way in which the entire festa recapitulated the experience of immigration. The annual celebration also involved a journey… Al of my informants stressed the fact that faithful came from ‘all over’ to the annual celebration, and they particularly wanted to call to my attention long trips that involved crossing water–from Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey; in each case, it was emphasized that a bridge had to be crossed or a boat taken but that this did not deter the faithful.

“By the principle of ‘inverted magnitudes,’ the signification of great realities or events by the smallest symbols or objects, the difficulties encountered in getting to the shrine opened out in meaning for the immigrants and played out again the movement of their migration, ending, as we were told their migration had ended, at their mother’s feet. The younger generations were invited to share in a very physical way the central event of their parents’ histories both by participating in the annual procession as children and by undertaking their long journeys back to Harlem for the devotion in later years.”

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street, pp. 163-165.