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Hector Giovanni Pizarro blesses religious figurines inside his \u00a0Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas in Wilton Manor.<\/p>\n
Carl Juste<\/p>\n
cjuste@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Inside Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas in Wilton Manors, store owner H\u00e9ctor Giovanni Pizarro Santana sweeps the floor as his tiny Chihuahua, Bella, scurries behind him. The shop, no more than 700-square-feet, is a picture of organized chaos.<\/p>\n
Sacred altars display various statues of orishas, or divine spirits, alongside offerings in the form of money, water, food and tobacco. Walls are lined from floor to ceiling with shelves of spiritual goods, from herb bundles to Catholic prayer books. Every object has meaning rooted in hundreds of years of Afro-Caribbean religious tradition.<\/p>\n
But Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas hasn\u2019t seen any customers for almost a year.<\/p>\n
Pizarro-Santana has been dealing with myriad issues at his store: Water damage from last hurricane season, disagreements with his landlord and a steady increase in rent has caused the shop owner stress and a significant loss in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to go without a fight, and I\u2019m struggling, but I\u2019m still there because I want to show that you fight for what you want,\u201d said Pizarro Santana, 37.<\/p>\n
Throughout Miami-Dade and parts of Broward County, \u201cbot\u00e1nicas\u201d \u2014 or stores that sell the religious goods like candles, oils and statues of saints used in Afro-Caribbean religions like Santer\u00eda \u2014 are hard to miss. Woven into the cultural fabric of South Florida, bot\u00e1nicas serve as spaces of community, connection and commerce for the spiritual. But as the old Miami continues to cede to the inevitable march of increased development, skyrocketing rent, gentrification, cost of living and changing demographics, bot\u00e1nica owners are finding themselves being forced to adapt to the new landscape in different ways.<\/p>\n
Rather than disappearing, many of South Florida\u2019s bot\u00e1nicas are reinventing themselves to survive a changing city. Some owners have expanded beyond their traditional clientele by embracing tourism and technology, while others say rising rents, inflation and difficulty finding willing landlords have made keeping their doors open a growing challenge.<\/p>\n
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The altar, Mesa Blanca, at the entrance of Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas in Fort Lauderdale holds figurines and images of saints, offerings, glasses of water left by practitioners as expressions of faith, and other religious items. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com Financial woes<\/p>\n
Pizarro Santana started his bot\u00e1nica business out of a flea market in Miami in 2013 after moving to the United States from Puerto Rico. After two years, he moved to Wilton Manors, opened up his own store and started building a community of clients.<\/p>\n
Pizarro Santana is practitioner of Santer\u00eda, also known as Regla de Ocha or Lucum\u00ed, which has roots in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and was brought to Cuba during the transatlantic slave trade. Santer\u00eda, the colloquial name used mostly in the U.S., came about after the enslaved Africans were forced to mask their traditional Yoruba faith with Catholic practices, symbols and saints after it was imposed upon them by the Spanish. In South Florida, the practice is so widespread that even some major supermarket and pharmacy chains carry products normally sold in bot\u00e1nicas.<\/p>\n
The faith is based in the worship of orishas, which can be described as saints or mediators of humanity\u2019s relationship with the sacred, with similar roles to saints in the Catholic religion. Those who turn to orishas often seek different forms of spiritual, financial, emotional or physical protection. In his shop, Pizarro Santana supplies the items needed to practice traditional rituals.<\/p>\n
Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas has always been a self-funded project for Pizarro-Santana, who said he\u2019s never taken out a loan and supplements his store with his other career in social work and mental health counseling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing conversations and seminars on spirituality and mental health, spirituality and the LGBT community, spirituality in the Hispanic cultures \u2026 my bot\u00e1nica is the only one that has the blend of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Inside Pizarro Santana\u2019s bot\u00e1nica, the walls, floor and ceiling still have water damage from last summer\u2019s hurricane season. On top of the repairs needed, Pizarro-Santana said his rent keeps increasing, making staying in his shop increasingly unaffordable. He says he\u2019s not making a profit and is taking extra shifts at his other job just to keep up.<\/p>\n
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Santeria priest Hector Giovanni Pizarro, known as \u201cOba Ti Lemi\u201d to practitioners, performs a blessing at the entrance of \u00a0Bot\u00e1nica Santo Tomas. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
Pizarro-Santana is not the only owner facing financial challenges.<\/p>\n
Nelson Hern\u00e1ndez has owned and operated El Viejo Lazaro, a bot\u00e1nica on West Flagler Street, for 23 years. He relies on a mix of loyal in-person customers, spiritual consultations and online orders to help keep the family-owned business alive.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez sells bunches of medicinal herbs \u2014 his most popular online item \u2014 and ships them all over the country. A bundle of Abre Camino herbs, for example, sells for $7.99 and is believed to clear paths, remove spiritual blocks and invite good fortune.<\/p>\n
Hernandez said his issue isn\u2019t increases in rent \u2014 he\u2019s owned the property since 2014 \u2014 but rather the belt-tightening due to the cost of living increases in South Florida affecting his clientele.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I sell half of what I used to sell,\u201d he said. \u201cThings are more expensive \u2014 the products, the rent, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than half of all Miami-Dade County households are living paycheck to paycheck, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.<\/a> That\u2019s 563,947 households that make just enough money to survive \u2014 often too much to qualify for government assistance \u2014 but not enough to save any money.<\/p>\n As rents spike, increasing costs can drive away the usual clientele of bot\u00e1nicas, said Edwin Aponte, professor of religion and culture at Drew University in New Jersey.<\/p>\n \u201cProperties that were once inexpensive, they go through the roof in terms of rentals … and so the clientele of the bot\u00e1nicas get pushed out of the neighborhood as the neighborhood changes,\u201d Aponte said.<\/p>\n Down the road in Hialeah, Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s friends, Raul and Rosa Villamia, who own Bot\u00e1nica Yemaya & Chango, recently closed their store after the plaza where the store was located changed owners.<\/p>\n Many who spoke with the Herald mentioned Bot\u00e1nica Yemaya & Chango as an example of a long-time business that was forced out of a neighborhood that\u2019s rapidly gentrifying.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had to move, and she had been there for 40 years,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said, referring to Rosa Villamia.<\/p>\n The owners announced their store\u2019s closure on Instagram and Facebook, where long-time customers flooded the comment section with sad face emojis and memories of the store.<\/p>\n \u201cFor four decades, this place was much more than a business. It was a refuge for many. A space where friendships were made, stories were shared and generations of customers became family,\u201d the store wrote on their social media accounts on April 11.<\/p>\n \u201cWow I\u2019m in shock. A true staple. I remember being a little girl and walking in there with my father and looking at all the soperas,\u201d wrote one commenter who mentioned she drove from West Kendall to frequent the bot\u00e1nica. Soperas are sacred containers believed to represent or house African Orishas.<\/p>\n Last month, the owners announced<\/a> that they were able to relocate to a spot near Westchester, a move that shows that survival increasingly requires flexibility, whether that means relocating or reaching customers in new ways.<\/p>\n As Miami-Dade County changes, bot\u00e1nicas are finding ways to appeal to a changing demographic, which can include focusing on online storefronts and using social media to attract new customers.<\/p>\n Hern\u00e1ndez, of El Viejo Lazaro bot\u00e1nica, said he relies on an online social media presence \u2014 TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Google \u2014 to attract new and sometimes younger customers. He\u2019s noticed that many young people seem to be showing an interest in Santer\u00eda. One Pew Research Center survey<\/a> shows that younger Americans increasingly identify as \u201cspiritual but not religious.\u201d<\/p>\n A bot\u00e1nica is one of the few places where someone who is interested in spirituality can cater to their beliefs without attending a place of organized religion. It allows for what Aponte calls an \u201coptional spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven if people are saying they don\u2019t have any particular religious convictions, they are still drawn to the bot\u00e1nicas because it helps them in their moving through everyday life, their everyday spirituality,\u201d Aponte said.<\/p>\n Many bot\u00e1nica owners are very protective of their spiritual business. The Miami Herald spoke with several shop owners who expressed concern about rising costs but refused to go on the record, many citing the stigma surrounding the religion and misconceptions about practitioners. This has created another issue for store owners when their buildings are sold to new landlords who could object to their religious practices.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people see this type of related spirituality, religiosity, as somehow evil, then they want to cut any connection with it, and they lose their lease,\u201d Aponte said.<\/p>\n Religious practices like Santer\u00eda and Haitian Vodou are often stigmatized as \u201cdemonic\u201d religions that dabble in destructive, evil practices, said Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, professor of religious studies and assistant provost of undergraduate education at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the stigma at its root is racism,\u201d Maldonado said. \u201cThe fact is that at its core [Santer\u00eda] still remains an African religion and has its roots in Black religious practices both in Cuba and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n More than a business<\/p>\n For Pizarro Santana, the religion isn\u2019t just his livelihood, it\u2019s his community.<\/p>\n Since he is also an ordained priest in a variety of denominations, he offers spiritual consultations to customers in order to help them figure out what religious objects or practices they may need. His clientele is a mix of all ages, and he used to get a lot of young professionals coming into the store seeking help, he said.<\/p>\n Caught in a cycle where rising rent and repair costs are making it nearly impossible to run his business, Pizarro Santana said closing the shop is taking a toll on him mentally and financially.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, I was depressed, because I missed it. I have over 100 clients texting me constantly, and it hurts me because I\u2019m like, damn, the store looks crazy. I\u2019m not able to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pizarro-Santana also identifies as gay and his store had become something of a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community in Wilton Manor \u2014 a well-known gay enclave in Broward.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it\u2019s my safe haven. For me, it is my sense of peace,\u201d Pizarro-Santana said<\/p>\n The store had served as a place where those on the fringes \u2014 the Santeros, the LGBTQ+, those struggling to figure out their own practice \u2014 could go to feel at home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the place that I only feel loved, accepted, understood, acknowledged, seen for the first time ever,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I want everybody else to get as well. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was produced with financial support<\/a> from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida\u2019s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.<\/p>\n This story was originally published August 13, 2026 at 4:30 AM.<\/p>\n![\"Universal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_02BOTANICAS.JPG\" "\\"MIA_02BOTANICAS.JPG\\"")
Religious figurines such as the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre and other artifacts can be found at South Florida bot\u00e1nicas. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com Bot\u00e1nicas have to move and adapt<\/p>\n![\"Universal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_08BOTANICAS.JPG\" "\\"MIA_08BOTANICAS.JPG\\"")
Hector Giovanni Pizarro holds a bottle of Florida Water Cologne prior to blessing the entrance of his bot\u00e1nica. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n![\"Universal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MIA_03BOTANICAS.JPG\" "\\"MIA_03BOTANICAS.JPG\\"")
Hector Giovanni Pizarro holds his dog while preparing to bless his bot\u00e1nica with cigar smoke. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
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