By Sara Goldblatt


On the Wednesday following the mayoral election in New York City, our class was sent out to the five boroughs to find out what people thought of the results. We discovered a variety of opinionated, colorful characters (listen to the clips!). 


I ended up on Arthur Avenue, in the Bronx. Put differently: I ended up in Naples, circa 1890. This was not Manhattan's "Little Italy"--I have generally avoided the restaurants on (what is left of) Mulberry like the plague; their garlic, their mandolins, and their ballads belong in a movie set. This Little Italy was real, complete with hand-rolled sausages and cigars. In the main market, at the olive stand, I met Modesta Navarra, a fabulous woman who did not speak a word of English. Her dialect was a rich hybrid of Neapolitan, interspersed with a handful of English words (you know, okay). Her opinion on the election was straightforward: it doesn't matter who the candidate is, her bambini need jobs.