Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/83741672.html
Angel Perez leans on the counter in his botanica and listens intently as a tall blond woman tells him how she just lost her job - and her sense of purpose.
Perez's Botanica Maria sits on Fifth Street in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, between a laundromat and a pizza shop. The narrow, dimly lit store is stuffed with candles of various colors for various things, like red for love, yellow for good fortune, and green for money. There are candles dedicated to patron saints and candles for remedies, such as a "shut up" candle to stop people from slandering you.
In the shop of Santeria wares, there are also beads, crucifixes, holy water, soaps, oils, and sprays such as Go Away Evil; porcelain statues of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, St. Lazarus, a sitting Indian, and La Madama, a former slave who resembles Aunt Jemima; and ornate horseshoes decorated with gold mini-saints, cowrie shells, and flowers, which Perez makes in a workroom behind the store.