Source: Orlando Sentinel
At Botanica Yemaya Olokum, in a strip shopping center in south Orlando, business is brisk -- as it is at most other shops for the holidays.
As shelves are restocked, the voice of Celia Cruz wails devotional songs to the beat of drums in the background. Incense fills the air. Candles flicker. The saints, plaster sculptures painted in bright colors who seem to watch over the store, are cleaned and "fed" their favorite offerings.
Botanicas -- retail shops filled with aromas, sounds and colors as extravagant as the beliefs in the magical potions, cleansing baths and psychic powers of their customers -- have surfaced in greater number in Central Florida. They are sharing space with pharmacies and real-estate offices in shopping centers.
They have increased as Hispanics and other immigrants, particularly from the Caribbean, seek them out.
Luis Martinez-Fernandez, director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies program at the University of Central Florida, says botanicas are a form of "cultural syncretism" that mostly "comes here with that population" of Caribbean transplants.
There are about 20 such businesses in the metro area -- in Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford, Deltona and Orange City.