Abstract
This article examines Latino healers’ use and prescription of herbs and plants in New York City (NYC), amidst the presence of botánicas (ethnic healing-religious stores) as main healing outlets serving a pan-ethnic population of Latino immigrants in the city. Botánicas provide a physical and a social space for the exchange of information and resources, as well as for the support of informal faith-healing networks on the basis of religious belonging (e.g., Santeria and Spiritism).
Rather than conforming to discrete categories, plants and herbs reveal a poli-functionality in which they are used to impact on different aspects of clients’ lives, ranging from getting back a loved one to trying to recover from a serious health condition. Healers’ treatments, based on ritualistic cleansing, are pivotal to resolve Latinos’ ailments rooted in sociosoma modes of causation that imply severed social relationships on the basis of sorcery, spirits’ intrusion as well as stressful living circumstances. Most of the plants, herbs, and roots found at botánicas are believed to have not only natural but also supernatural properties, able to deal with the multi-dimensional aspects of disease and well-being. The article finally discusses the implications of these findings from a esearch and policy perspective, particularly regarding the need for research models able to account for the role of spirituality and religiosity in Latinos’ integrative systems of healing.
Key words: folk healers, immigrant health, alternative medicine,
Latinos, botánicas, ethnomedicine, New York City.