What are Yerberias?

Hierberias most known as yerberias, are boutiques which focus on using nature for thousands of purposes. In these small stores you can find practically anything for any problem or difficult situation you maybe in. Yerberias are not all the same, some focus on Santeria while others focus on other beliefs. Santeria is a kind of religion with origins from Africa, although now it is practiced all over the world, it has become a mixture with ancient African beliefs along with Catholicism with the use of saints therefore the term Santeria comes about.  Owners of these yerberias  practice the use of cards, others claim to connect spiritualy and know about the future, others  claim to only serve God. Yerberias also offer its customers a diversity of plants and herbs that can be used in remedios or remedies. The diverse products sold at a yerberia can be used by curanderos or healer. Yerberias are becoming more popular and are spreading across the nation. Most yerberias are found in communities with a high concentration of Latin Americans. Although, now it is common to see people with diverse ethnic backgrounds go to yerberias and practice the diverse beliefs.

Learning About La Yerberia

            

 
 



Yerberias have been accessed by my family members as far as I could remember, but I had never bothered to look into them in more detail. As a child, my grandmother would make remedios or remedies for almost everything. One of her famous remedies would be “ el remedio de empacho”, which consisted of different herbs and plants which could only be found in yerberias or in her back yard garden, this remedio was given to me a couple of times. It never sparked my curiosity before, to know what was used in my grandmothers’ remedios and where she obtained all the strange herbs used. My first time going to a yerberia was truly a pleasant and overall interesting cultural experience. The owner of the yerberia was very attentive and tried to help you in any way possible. I decided to ask her about el ojo de venado, the eye of the deer,since as a child my grandmother had me wear a bracelet along with a necklace which had an ojo de venado  attached.  My grandmother explained to me that its use was to remove all the consequences produced by spirits that have looked at me or, el mal de ojo . El mal de ojo has the capacity to make the young child sick, cry a lot, and not be able to sleep, along with other unpleasant symptoms. The owner of the yerberia stated that for young children the ojo de venado could only be used for the mal de ojo, unlike la mano de azabache, the hand of azabache. Azabache is a rock from Brazil used on a small bracelet, the azabache rock is used against magia negra or black magic. According to the Yerbera, the black magic can be placed upon you in many ways, and can have different effects which can include diarrhea, jealousy, stress, depression, etc. 

An Insight Into the Past of Yerberismo

The yerbera explained to me a little bit of the history of yerberia she informed me that the beliefs of yerberia is mostly used by people from Mexican origins but the Mexican culture adopted and adapted it to their way of life. In reality the origins of yerberia and Santeria derives from the African continent, she explained how slave trade brought these beliefs to Latin America specifically in Cuba where African slaves worked in plantations. The beliefs seemed to slowly integrate and fuse into the countries of Latin America who were pressured to convert into Catholicism, therefore the incorporation of Catholicism came about in yerberia. 

La Yerberia- What You Can Find?

Being the first time ever going to a yerberia, I had some sort of idea of what to expect, but I was shocked to see the enormous diversity of products that it had and all the different purposes the products were used for. The place was very colorful, there were hundreds of objects. There were amulets for good luck, potions for your love life, and jewelry for different purposes. Around the small store there was lots of holy images which included different saints. It sold books with a variety of topics. For example Santeria which consisted of prayers for saints, while others consisted of spells and lessons for crystal gazing. You can find all sorts of herbs and plants that are used for different purposes.