“With God Everything, Without God Nothing” —Jamaica Plain's Botanicas Serve Spiritual Needs of a Diverse Clientele

Jamaica Plain is home to a trio of botanicas. If you have ever walked past the on Centre Street, the on Washington Street, or South Street’s Botanica San Miguel, you may have stared in awe at these beautiful storefronts decorated with colorful statues, candles, and other items

“Botanica” can literally be translated as “botany,” “botanist,” or “botanical” but these unembellished meanings scarcely describe the scope of goods and services available at these stores. Herbs are indeed for sale at JP’s three botanicas but they also provide much more.

“We were the first botanica in Boston,” noted Juan Santiago, one of the owners of the Botanica Anaisa, which he said has been in operation for 31 years. “We have candles, baths, necklaces, rosaries, oil, statues, perfumes, incense, and other items,” said Santiago of his Centre Street store.

“In my country,” explained María Teresa Espíritu Santo, the Dominican-born proprietor of Botanica San Miguel, “This place would be like a CVS or Walgreens.  Botanicas are the same as pharmacies there.”

Many of the products in the botanicas appear to be single-purpose. For example, there are oils to attract luck, candles to get rid of someone, and incense to induce a sense of peace.

“They can be used for love, business, health, or to open your paths,” remarked Botanica Anaisa’s Santiago.

Espíritu Santo described how she works as a kind of pharmacist at her busy South Street botanica where she prescribes and formulates cures for her customers. “If I had a client who was being abused by her partner, the first thing I would tell her would be to leave him. You couldn’t just buy a bottle of “Vete,” which is probably best translated as “go away,” said la dueña, or owner.

Gina, the first-name only proprietor of the Botanica La Milagrosa, stated that if she had an ache or pain, she would buy some Aspercreme at the CVS. 

Whether a cure works or not, she said, “depends on your faith.  “And,” she added, “the strength in your mind.”

One conviction shared by all believers in botanicas is the importance of “despojo,” or cleansing. Many of the products are designed to purify practitioners’ bodies and homes. The botanicas offer ready-made, packaged baths, and fresh herbs that can be used to prepare customized cleansings. Espíritu Santo explained how homes can be purged with a ritual where incense is burned, and the windows are opened for bad spirits or energy to escape.

Both the Botanica Anaisa and the Botanica San Miguel also offer spiritual readings for their clients. By tradition, the price charged is typically $21. At Botanica Anaisa, readings are available using “caracoles,”or small sea shells, that are tossed, and the results are then tallied to divine the past, present and future. The Botanicas Anaisa and San Miguel both provide tarot readings as well, using a Spanish set of cards, that like English decks are comprised of four suits.

The statues, prayer cards, and pictures that one sees at the botanicas symbolize a complex pantheon of saints. Some of the images are strictly Christian. Others are derived from “Santería,” best explained summarily by Botanica Anaisa’s Web site as “La santería o religión yoruba surge a fines del Siglo XIX con la llegada de los esclavos africanos a la isla de Cuba,” or “Santería or Yoruba religion emerged in the late nineteenth century with the arrival of African slaves to the island of Cuba.”  Santería, although of Cuban origin, is, according to Wikipedia, now widely practiced throughout the Caribbean, North and South American. Often, as seen at the neighborhood's botanicas, the saints are presented with offerings of fruits, flowers, and other gifts.

In Espíritu Santo's shop many faiths are honored. Christian, Buddhist and Hindu devotional items are all available. But she has a special affinity to Saint Michael, for whom her botanica is named.  “He is the best angel,” she said.  “He cast Lucifer to hell,” she explained about the mighty archangel, who is sometimes revered as second only to God. 

“Con dios todo, sin dios nada,” emphasized the Botanica San Miguel’s owner.  “With God everything, without God nothing.”

The delightful dueña served tea to the steady stream of devoted customers in her shop, and stated that she has clients from all backgrounds.  “Whites...blacks...Latinos...You saw the Chinese guy?”  she asked.

“People come here for the peace and tranquility,” she added, before giving me a parting gift of a book and some incense, and inviting me to return on Sept. 29, San Miguel’s feast day.