A botánica (often written botanica and less commonly known as a hierbería or botica) is a religious goods store. The name botánica is Spanish and translates as "botany" or "plant store," referring to these establishments' function as dispensaries of medicinal herbs. Botánicas are common in many Hispanic American countries and Latino communities around the world. Such establishments sell folk medicine, herbs, candles, and statues for Saints and popular gods. They also carry oils, incense, perfumes, and books. Such stores have become increasingly popular in the United States as the Latino communities they serve have grown in that country. A botánica is a site of healing and support, such that one owner says they are a "place of mysteries" due to the metaphysical appreciation of mystery as a synonym for spirit and divinity.
Most botánicas sell products and services associated with spiritual practices such as Candomblé, Curanderismo, Espiritismo, Macumba, Palo Monte, Santa Muerte, María Lionza and Santería. Whether these items are viewed as cultural imports or adaptive responses on the part of immigrants to a new social environment, the majority of these products and services are used by those who seek guidance in their spiritual and social lives. Botánicas provide their patrons with access to power: power from the natural world, the social world, and the world of the spirits. Devotees, in turn, use this power to meet the challenges of ordinary life: problems of health, wealth, and love. People come to the botánica with a host of struggles and problems, and the botánica offers hope from these troubles.
There is extensive research and literature on botánicas as dispensers of healthcare in the Latino communities of the United States. Without access to professional health services, many Latinos have found effective care in the herbal treatments and psychological support that botánicas offer.
History
Botánicas extend centuries-old practices of using plants and herbs to treat and heal illnesses. According to scholar Jules Janick, botánicas have their roots in the relationship of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Spaniards. The Aztecs showed the Spaniards their methods to healing, such as which plants had curative properties and how to use them. Soon after, the Spaniards began to keep records of the names of the plants and their uses. These practices continued and evolved as household remedies during and after the Spanish conquest. Generally a person who practiced the art of folk healing became known as a curandero, with the practice known as Curanderismo.
The blending of cultures through Spanish colonialism introduced other influences on the religious and healing practices that later became crystallized in botánicas. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Spanish brought large numbers of Africans to their colonies in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Many of them brought along their African religious beliefs. Much as Vodou developed under French colonialism in Haiti as a blend of Roman Catholicism and African religions, Santería ("Way of the Saints") developed along similar lines in Cuba. Santería absorbed a strong influence from Spanish Catholicism. Its rituals include dancing, drumming and speaking with spirits. As practitioners of these religions have immigrated to the U.S. and other countries, botánicas allows customers to have access to materials used in their religious rituals.
Evidence suggests that the first botánicas were opened in Cuba and Puerto Rico in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These shops were initially “green pharmacies” operated by herbalists. The earliest Mexican and Mexican American botanicas seem to date to the late 1960s and early 1970s. Others argue that the botánica first emerged in the United States, citing New York's Spanish Harlem as the birthplace. According to this theory, similar shops spread out first across the U.S. and only later back to the Caribbean and Latin American countries from which these practices originated. Over the following decades, people from a wide variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds have founded and used botánicas for economic and cultural benefit.