Botanica Traditions

In dozens of botanicas serving immigrants from Mexico and Central America, Old World folk healers minister to clients in New World Orange County.

The curanderos, or healers, use centuries-old traditions that combine mysticism, superstition, herbs, oils and their own touch to help those seeking cures for life’s ills.

When Jorge Ramirez, a 37-year-old immigrant from Mexico, was down on his luck, his family and friends saw only one way out: a limpia, or spiritual cleansing. Unemployed for nearly two years, he had lost his house and then his wife and children. Job interview after interview yielded only rejections.

So Ramirez went to Botanica Cristy in Santa Ana, which Cristy Munoz has operated for six years. In her shop, Munoz sells lucky candles, amulets, religious icons, perfumes, sprays, powder, oils and herbs. She performs spiritual healing rituals in an effort to help clients repair damaged psyches or injured bodies.

“People come here because they know I can improve their lives,” says Munoz, a native of Mexico. “It was a gift I was born with. I didn’t have to learn it.”

She describes herself as a bruja--a witch--who practices a style of magic based on religious faith.

In Ramirez’s case, over several months, Munoz performs three “cleansings.” On the third visit, Ramirez, wearing only shorts, stands in an iron circle in front of a wooden cross and rosary while Munoz chants prayers and bathes him in white carnations and holy water. She rubs him with three candles--orange, purple and green--to burn his negative energies.

Ramirez becomes so relaxed he momentarily falls asleep. Afterward, he explains: “I left this world temporarily. I feel very good. Very serene.”

He says that after his first visit, things started changing for the better. He eventually landed a temporary job selling newspaper advertising.

“It had never occurred to me to blame this on bad luck,” says Ramirez in Spanish. “But now, because of the changes, I do believe it was a bad energy that had entered my life.”

Outside the rooms of botanicas, there is plenty of skepticism about the value of the folk treatments offered and concern that a person who might benefit from mainstream medical treatment or counseling won’t get it--the shops are separate and distinct from licensed medical clinics and pharmacies.

Even doctors in the United States who see some value in using herbs to heal the body caution against depending on them for serious illnesses. The Roman Catholic Church urges botanica patrons to rely on the power of prayer for healing, not witchcraft or the occult.

But for those who find comfort in botanica traditions--from herbal remedies, card readings or more complex dealings--the shops and folk healers who operate them are a part of life.

Some patrons, anxious to cover all their bases, say they combine trips to botanicas with trips to doctors--and to church.