By Angela Pimenta

HERE IS NO RELIGIOUS HIERARCHY HERE. A wide range of gods and saints share space in El Indio Amazonico store.

Located on Roosevelt Avenue, in the heart of Jackson Heights, the store displays images of a blond Jesus Christ next to Buddha, Tarot icons and entities from the santería, a word that defines both Latin-American ecumenic practices and a place where the believer finds the goods to please his or her gods.


El Indio Amazonico sells candles, lotions and prayers. PHOTO: Angela Pimenta

The store, or tiemplo (temple), as the manager and psychic Santiago Moncado calls it, promises help for all kinds of difficulties. To deal with job and love troubles, financial debts and sickness, El Indio Amazonico offers colorful lotions, amulets, candles, prayers and blessings.

"We have the power of healing," says Moncado, 35, who was born in Ecuador. "Not only Latinos come here, but all kinds of Americans looking for happiness." Moncado estimates that about 70 people per week visit El Indio Amazonico. The store charges $40 per session, which includes palm readings, advice, and reading of the shells.

Moncado works as a spiritual assistant for the real "El Indio Amazonico," a Colombian astrologer named Triburty Mirachura Chindoy Mutubanjoy. When the Indio is absent from the business — this year he has been working in Los Angeles — Moncado accomplishes some sacred tasks, such as giving consultations. The manager maintains the mystery about his boss, the Indio Amazonico. "I don't know his name. He is a kind of priest who travels a lot in this country assisting the people," he says.

El Indio Amazonico’s spiritual portfolio includes three different approaches to predicting the future: tarot cards, horoscopes and the reading of shells. In reading shells, the psychic tosses them over the table. Their patterns, according to Moncada, reveal the customers’ fates.

The psychic also says Indian prayers to cure fragile children. "Evil adults' eyes can contaminate these small creatures," he explains. "So I bless the children and show the mothers how to bathe them two times a week."

But the shop does not offer any voodoo practices or curses. "We only work for the good of the people, although we are able to do everything," Moncado says. "Most of our customers don't like the voodoo. They believe only in good things."


Spiritual offerings laid out at El Indio Amazonico, 86-26 Roosevelt Ave. PHOTO: Angela Pimenta

Born in Guayaquil, an historical village in the coast of
 Ecuador, Moncado has lived in Jackson Heights for 12 years. He immigrated to the United States to improve his career as a psychic. "This country is only bad for people who don't like to work," he says. In Jackson Heights, Moncado says he feels some prejudice only from Southern Latin-Americans, such as Uruguayans and Argentineans. "Our true brothers are the Colombians, Peruvians and Venezuelans, people from the Amazon region, like me," he says.

 

 

 

Spiritual Heights


El Indio Amazonico


Beautiful brownstones characterize Jackson Heights. PHOTO: Angela Pimenta

By Stephanie Franken

A legacy of the nation's first privately built city, stately brownstone apartments line the blocks near the 82nd Street stop in Jackson Heights.

Most of the area’s buildings were constructed by developer Edward McDougal, beginning in 1916. In the early days of McDougal’s development, strict ordinances kept the homes spiffy, according to Jeffrey Saunders, an historian for the Jackson Heights Historical Society.

Almost all the homes have backyards with gardens, a common design in Mediterranean and Latin American housing. In the first half of the 20th century, McDougal held his neighborhoods to high standards. All homes needed to have plants around them. Pets could not run free. All residents’ credentials — such as their incomes and personal contacts — were checked.

But McDougal’s homes were not available to just anyone. New immigrants were often shunned because of living habits like cooking with too much curry, says Saunders. "The issue wasn’t religion or race," he says. "The issue was, ‘Did they just get off the boat?’ The first generation, which didn’t really interact well with acculturated Americans, generally wasn’t welcome."

Somewhat ironically, the buildings are now partly occupied by some of New York’s newer residents: Colombians who arrived in the 1980s and rapidly rose to middle-class status. The brownstones also are home to other Latino residents who continue to keep demand for the old brick buildings high.

But because of high real-estate values, the neighborhood remains out of reach for most of Jackson Heights’ newest New Yorkers, Mexican immigrants. Most of Jackson Heights’ new Mexican population lives to the east of the popular 82nd Street buildings.