ETHEL HARRIS, 55, 8TH AVENUE AT 28TH STREET
ETHEL HARRIS, 55, 8TH AVENUE AT 28TH STREET
WORD ON THE STREET: Have you considered a second language?
ETHEL HARRIS: I went to school and I was supposed to learn Italian. I quit school when I was 13 years old, so I couldn’t continue doing it.
Why did you pick Italian?
Because I’m Italian.
What can you still say in Italian?
I don’t know that much, I know a little bit. Mamma mia means “I give up.” That’s as far as I went.
How about, come stai or capiche?
Yeah, I know that. “Take you to the moon,” my grandmother used to say that to me in Italian, I forgot how it was.
My mother is half Italian –
– I’m full Italian.
She has an Italian phrase, “Come here, I break your face.” She would say it as a joke. She doesn’t know Italian.
When my grandma would get mad, she would speak Italian. She would take a wooden spoon: “I’m going to hit you with a wooden spoon, get over here now!”
She would say it in Italian?
Yeah.
So you understood Italian.
I had an Italian accent, because I am disabled, I couldn’t talk so my grandma, she comes from Italy, she taught me to talk with an Italian accent. I use my hands when I talk.
Sometimes I’ll gesture with an open palm while touching my thumb to my index finger. I don’t know when or why I started making that gesture.
When I get mad, I use a curse word in Italian.
Which one?
Fungool.
What’s that mean?
“Fuck you.” My grandma used to use to say it to my grandfather.
Why would she say that to him?
Because he got on her nerves. When she would get dressed, she would want him to go in the other room. He didn’t stop bothering her, so she would say fungool. She wanted her privacy.
A friend of mine lived in Italy and he taught me to say, Io non voglio a fare una sega, which translates to “I’m so bored, I don’t even want to jerk off.”
Yeah. My grandma makes wine. She told me to go upstairs; she doesn’t want me to look.
She should have let you stomp the grapes with your feet.
She doesn’t do that. She takes white grapes and she won’t let me see how she does it, she tells me to go upstairs. I go upstairs, and I go back downstairs, and she goes, “Whassa matta for you!” which is Italian for “What’s wrong with you?”.
It sounds like English to begin with.
It’s her accent.
Would knowing Italian be very useful in NYC?
There are Italian people that speak Italian, and I like to talk to Italians.
But there aren’t many Italians in NYC anymore.
My fiancé grew up with Italians. He’s not here right now, he’s in jail. I miss him.
How long has he been gone?
Since September.
What happened?
The guy chased him down. He’s got to go to court. I want to see him. I can’t get there.
What’s a language you have no interest in learning? How about Chinese?
Not really.
Why not?
I’m Italian, that’s why.
Which part of Italy are your parents from?
I can’t remember.
Do you consider yourself to be Latina?
Latin comes from Italy.
Latin predates Italy.
I’m a full Italian.
[Longboarder walks by with Italian Horn on his necklace.] Hey, that guy’s Italian too!
Yeah, my grandma got me one of those, but it was ripped off when I became homeless. I want to learn more about Italians. I want to talk full Italian.
If you could speak full Italian, would you be a more realized version of yourself?
Yes.
Why?
Because I would be grown up.
Do you think having learned Italian at a young age would have afforded you better opportunities in your life?
Yes, it would.
Like what?
If I go to Italy, I would speak fluent Italian now.
Hey, your last name is Harris. That’s not Italian.
My father is not Italian, my father’s side is German, my grandma is Italian, and my mother is German-Italian.
So that means you’re not full Italian.
I’m more Italian than I am German because I have my grandma’s blood. In the hospital, her blood was the only type that would go in me. That makes me Italian, like, full-blooded.
I prefer WOTS when you aren’t scraping the bottom of the bottom of the barrel.
This is why you don’t talk to homeless people, they generally converse about as well as they smell.
I like that mole right above the gap in her teeth. God is an artist, our bodies his canvas.
this is gold.
@Zippy:
That ain’t no mole.