Paola Alvarez hovered over the nest of aromatics on the small iron grate and puffed into the glowing embers, sending a fragrant wisp of smoke toward the ceiling of her Five Points shop.
The smoke rose from a mound of spices and herbs concocted to combat negative energy: frankincense, myrrh, sage, rosemary, cinnamon and santa maria.
This is Botanica Caridad del Cobre, a store at 3501 Lawrence St. whose wares reflect a blend of traditional Mexican folk medicine and some of the more mystical strains of Catholicism. It sells herbs, oils, incense, prayer candles and the occasional dried bat or swallow heart to folks who need the sort of help that goes beyond crossed fingers.
For the past three years, the botanica has done a brisk trade with customers seeking a special type of good fortune: relatives of American soldiers, Marines and other combatants in Iraq.
“On a weekly basis, we probably get anywhere from 50 to 80 families who come in looking for herbs and amulets that will give protection to their loved ones,” said Alvarez, a cherubic 22-year-old who has worked in the store since she was in the seventh grade. “They want peace of mind.”
There are no statistics on how many military personnel employ the charms and folk magic of Mexico. But some simple math shows the potential base: There are 1,426,713 active-duty personnel in America’s military and another 1,259,000 in various Reserve units. The U.S. Department of Defense says Hispanics make up nearly 10 percent of the armed services.
Maria Ramirez runs Botanica Yemaya at 3773 N. Federal Blvd. in Denver. One of her regulars is a woman who buys copal, a pine- tree resin often used in Indian sweat lodges. She burns the copal at home to keep evil away from her son, who is serving in Iraq.
“She didn’t know where he was for three or four months, and she was worried out of her head,” Ramirez said. “It’s really hard on the parents, especially the mothers.”
Ramirez also offers spiritual guidance for these families. She starts by asking the client who their devotional saint is, a Catholic’s personal patron.
“I take it from there,” Ramirez said. “I have an in-depth conversation with them about their goals, and we set up a program.”
The program typically involves burning candles or incense and saying prayers at prescribed times.
One popular item at botanicas is a prayer candle beseeching the goodwill of Juan de Soldado — John the Soldier. It bears the image of Juan Castillo Morales, a Mexican folk hero.
Herbs for protection and tranquility also sell well. Families often ship them to military personnel in harm’s way, from Iraq to Colombia. Combat infantrymen who face the prospect of firefights might receive a more martial gift such as John the Conqueror root, which is believed to help vanquish foes. Other items assist soldiers returning stateside.
“They are trained to kill in combat, and if they come back with any mental problems, we have herbs to get rid of the stress put on them by war,” Alvarez said.
Barbara Dine of Denver is a frequent visitor to Alvarez’s Five Points shop. Her son is in Iraq doing classified work for the U.S. government. She sends him incense to burn, often a compound of myrrh, sandalwood and oils.
“I send it to him to cleanse and purify himself and to clear the house of negativity,” Dine said.
So far, her son has remained unscathed.
Alvarez’s brother, Carlos Ramirez, runs a sister shop in Colorado Springs. Some of his customers come in from nearby Fort Carson, home to brigades from the Army’s 2nd and 4th Infantry Divisions and the 10th Special Forces Group. He too has seen an uptick in business.
Although the soldiers buy sage bundles and other herbs said to purify spaces and bring tranquility, Ramirez said they also buy saints medallions. Popular ones include St. Jude, the patron of desperate causes, and St. Christopher, one-time patron saint of travelers.
“For peace of mind for the parents and siblings, it really helps,” he said.
Yuri Rojas, whose husband is stationed in Baghdad, is a regular at the shop, which sits in a small strip shopping center on Circle Drive. She buys prayer candles that she sends to him along with batches of cookies.
“I come into the shop every week,” she said. “I feel the candles protect him, and they make me feel better too. It’s a hard time for all of us, but this helps.”
Rojas’ friend Berenice Krout, a land surveyor in Colorado Springs, remembers the family rituals when her father, a 22-year Army veteran, served in Vietnam.
Krout doesn’t know the details of her dad’s tour in a war zone — “He doesn’t talk about his experiences, and we don’t ask” — but she has vivid memories of her mom coping with her husband’s absence. “She would light guardian-angel candles, say prayers, and she burned sage and frankincense,” Krout said.
From the familiar to the exotic
Denver’s Botanica Caridad del Cobre opened 25 years ago, when owner Martin Ramirez — Alvarez’s father and a trained curandero, or healer — decided his neighbors needed access to the spiritual curatives of their native Mexico.
Although the shop serves all manner of believers, its merchandise is weighted to the fusion of Catholicism and folk magic found in Mexico. Most customers speak Spanish.
The shop is packed to the ceiling, with shelves sagging under the weight of merchandise. More than 280 herbs and spices are sold.
There are scores of prayer candles featuring Catholic saints. Some merchandise is familiar to most Americans, such as marjoram and cayenne that also have spiritual or healing purposes. Other items, from yerba mate to orrisroot, are not.
Some merchandise is more exotic, such as “dragon’s blood,” dried bits of deer blood. You can buy devil’s shoestring, a plant used in making mojo bags, the satchels of magic familiar to fans of the Delta blues.
On a recent morning, Alvarez set a Juan de Soldado candle on a glass countertop.
It was imprinted with a prayer in Spanish that ended with a plea: “Grant me protection and harmony for my family, and give them peace and tranquility while I am at war or on duty. God our father.”
Alvarez has met a number of soldiers who have returned from Iraq and stop by the store.
“They come in when they get back from overseas, and they’re pretty much just grateful and happy,” she said. “They tell us ‘thank you.’ And they usually come back to buy something.”
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
