Botanica by AirWick Air Freshener Naturally Derived Wax Candle, VETIVER & SANDALWOOD, Up to 40 Hours Burn Time

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During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Spanish brought large numbers of Africans to their colonies in North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Ultimately, botánicas serve as a bridge in efforts to develop community healthcare programs that link families with conventional medical practitioners who lack their native familiarity. At the botánica, people can find strength in this affirmation of identity, both in the preservation of creative, sustaining traditions from home countries as well as in building a new space in a new world.The majority of the products offered for sale and the services provided at botánicas are most closely associated with Afro-Cuban religions (Santería and Palo Mayombe); Latin American Spiritist doctrine ( Espiritismo); localized, vernacular expressions of Catholic piety ( folk Catholicism); and Latin American folk healing or traditional medicine (Curanderismo). Over the following decades, people from a wide variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds have founded and used botánicas for economic and cultural benefit. Reglas de Kongo or Palo also originated in Cuba; this religion solicits African spirits and spirits of the dead to aid the living. History [ edit ] Botánicas such as this one in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, cater to the Latino community and sell folk medicine alongside statues of Catholic saints, candles decorated with prayers, lucky bamboo, and other items. The Aztecs showed the Spaniards their methods to healing, such as which plants had curative properties and how to use them.

Devotees, in turn, use this power to meet the challenges of ordinary life: problems of health, wealth, and love.As sites of healing and communal support, botanicas operate not only as settings for spiritual contemplation but also as information bases.