Saul Gonzalez reports from Los Angeles.
SAUL GONZALEZ: Strolling musicians singing songs of love, sidewalk food vendors, and murals in a rainbow of colors. They're all common sights in Los Angeles's immigrant Latino neighborhoods. So is an unusual kind of store called a botanica. On some streets, there seems to be one on every block.
Although a typical botanica can appear humble on the outside, come within and one finds a rich array of spiritual and religious merchandise: candles and incense, potions and powders, icons and statues. Taken together, the products represent a kaleidoscope of faiths and folkloric practices.YSAMUR FLORES (Folklorist): You can call them supermarkets of the divine. Anything that has to do with the spiritual world you will find in a botanica.
GONZALEZ: Ysamur Flores is an expert on Caribbean and Latino folklore who lectures about botanicas at UCLA, among other universities. He admires the stores' freewheeling spiritual eclecticism.
Mr. FLORES: You can find icons from any religious tradition in the world. You have Catholicism. You have Judaism. You have Buddhism. You have any "ism" that you can think of, because the idea is that the botanica is really a polyglot. It speaks all religious languages. So any religious or spiritual language can be found in a botanica.
GONZALEZ: The stores first emerged in the Caribbean, where they originally sold traditional herbal remedies and items used in the practice of Santeria, a faith that mixes together indigenous West African religious beliefs and Christian customs.In this country, says Flores, botanicas still reflect a uniquely Caribbean approach to faith, one that blurs the borders between different religions while encouraging spiritual self-expression.
Mr. FLORES: In the Caribbean, there is no conflict of being many things at once. If you ask anyone in the Caribbean what is your religion, most likely they will tell you, "I am Catholic," but add after a short pause -- "in my own way."
GONZALEZ: In Los Angeles, botanicas have shown their adaptability by expanding their selection of merchandise to appeal to the city's large Mexican and Central American immigrant communities.One of the largest botanicas in Southern California is Indio Products. With its vast selection of merchandise, it has the feel of a spiritual and supernatural Wal-Mart.
SONIA WILLIAMS (Customer): This is Saint Ramon and I use him for my own benefit, to protect my children, to protect them from gossip. Protecting them from the evil eye. Somebody might wish me bad thoughts and unhappiness. He keeps all of this away from my door. I believe in him very much.
GONZALEZ: For immigrants in Los Angeles and other American cities, botanicas are far more than spiritual curio stores; they are safe havens, places where newcomers to this country can go to sustain their beliefs, traditions, and customs in a strange new land.
CARLOS FIGUEROA (Botanica Owner): Let's say you are the manager of a company, someone who wants to see immigration papers, but you the worker don't have them. You will come here, and we will do something so you can get papers. People come here for their work and for their health. And we will make a spell or ask San Simon so they get what they want.
Their defenders, however, argue that botanicas play a vital role in the spiritual life of communities, helping people sustain deeply felt, if unorthodox, forms of faith. Flores calls this the theology of the street.
