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Walking through the streets of East Harlem or the Bronx, you’re bound to run across a few brightly colored stores, often adorned with statues and idols in their windows.
In these stores, shoppers can often find crucifixes and statues of the Virgin Mary alongside African idols and candles that promise good luck and fortune.
You might also hear Spanish being spoken by the customers who flock inside and peruse the bottles and ointments on the shelves.
These stores, botánicas as they are known in Spanish, are all over New York City. While there aren’t any official statistics describing how many botánicas exists within the city, many can be found in Hispanic and Latino neighborhoods.