LOS ANGELES -- They go to Madam Maria with their worst troubles: abusive husbands, cheating wives, alcoholic sons.
She sits shrouded in sage smoke in the back room of her Santa Fe Springs, Calif., potions and herb shop and delivers her advice between swigs of Limon Pepino Gatorade.
After 30 years, Maria Murillo Beltran, the astrologer known as La Galla (the rooster), thought she'd heard it all.
But recently, people have begun to pop into her purple-and-gold lobby with a new problem they pronounce: El Tromp. As in El Donald J. Trump.
The Republican presidential nominee has so unnerved some Hispanics that they are turning to the supernatural world for help, consulting fortunetellers, witch doctors and shamans.
In a culture steeped in folklore and superstition, church or therapy won't always do.
Some have spent up to $30 to cleanse themselves of Trump's energy, using herbs, oils, perhaps an egg. Others have paid to tap into the mogul's spirit, hoping to stage a metaphysical intervention.
Unable to wait for November, they ask tarot cards, seashells, coffee dregs, cigar smoke: Is it possible Trump will win?
The big-shot prognosticators on Spanish-language television have brushed away such anxieties.
El senor Trump has "little future" politically, proclaimed Walter Mercado, a popular Puerto Rican astrologer known for his bedazzled capes and puffy hair, not so different from the Republican candidate's.
Antonio Vasquez, or El Brujo Mayor, Mexico's self-proclaimed Grand Warlock, also said in his annual predictions that Trump would not make it to the White House.
Even so, Madam Maria now says nearly 30 percent of her clients ask about Trump during their sessions.
"Everyone thought he was a joke, a bad telenovela [soap opera]," Murillo Beltran said. "But now they know it's real, and they come to me with a lot of fear, a lot of paranoia."
The shaman's clients began to bring up Trump soon after the candidate thrust Mexico into the spotlight, saying the country sends mostly rapists, drugs and crime to the United States.
A few, to her surprise, are rooting for him. The rest, she said, would like to know: If he's president, what's he going to do to us?
The candidate's talk of building a wall, ceasing remittances and deporting those in the United States illegally could spell doom for some families. Recent polls show only 1 in 5 Hispanics favors him.
His campaign has driven a record number of Hispanics to register to vote. Here and in Mexico, they've smashed thousands of Trump pinatas.
But whacking a Trump lookalike may not be enough to zap the angst.
The week Trump flew to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, the queasiness in Juan Hernandez's stomach proved too much.
On his way home from work, he stopped by Botanica Jukila, a potions and herb shop in east Los Angeles, to consult with Lazaro Paz.
Since Hernandez, 30, left his native Guanajuato 10 years ago, he's built a nice life in Pico Rivera. He works at a recycling plant. He married an American citizen and has two kids, ages 2 and 5. The couple recently applied for him to attain legal status.
Hernandez worries that if Trump takes over, his paperwork will never be approved.
"I have a feeling our world will come tumbling down," he said.
The shaman he stopped to see is 37, young by sorcerer standards. But he was highly recommended. He's from Hernandez's home state, and word is his mother was also a sorcerer.
His menu is the mix of magic and religion that's attracted customers to potion and herb shops for decades. He does card readings, healings, spells, curse breaks and love ties.
"He has a gift," Hernandez said. "He sees things."
That night, Paz told him, he saw a woman in charge.
It was enough to ease Hernandez's anxiety, at least until the next poll.
Across Los Angeles, potion and herb shops are a common sight, blending in with bakeries, laundromats and hair salons.
Within a 3-mile radius in Huntington Park, nearly 20 vie for customers. Proprietors appoint themselves folk healers, spiritual guides, masters and professors.
They peddle the old and the new: rituals and herbs that have been used for centuries, "Come to Me" candles, "Against Evil" soaps, "Dominate Everything" aerosol sprays.
Some shamans say they have not heard from customers about Trump. Others cut off any mention of politics.
"We have more important things to deal with," said a slightly irritated Silvia Calderon, owner of Botanica San Judas Tadeo in Boyle Heights.
Half a block from MacArthur Park, Mateo Chavarria didn't wait for customers to bring up the election.
Months ago, the owner of Botanica De Los Angeles performed a ceremony in the back of his house. Chavarria said using oils, candles, fruit and a red mole as an offering, he tapped into the spirits of Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and, in a transcendental way, had them face off.
"I saw Donald Trump's energy very clearly," he said. "It's not strong enough to influence enough minds."
Chavarria shares this with anyone who walks into his potion and herbs shop -- at no extra cost.
The recently sworn-in citizen also encourages everyone to vote.
At a potions and herb shop in Echo Park, a Salvadoran with a long goatee dyed white offers readings in which he puffs on a cigar and interprets the smoke and ashes.
Yosmar, who goes by only one name, says that women love the white hair -- and that people come into his shop and mention the election every week.
"We'll be in the middle of a cigar-smoke consultation, and they'll ask about their health, their job, their wife," he said, demonstrating with a cigar in his mouth. "Then just as I'm about to blow, they'll throw in the Trump question."
He said he has all sorts of clients, some poor, some well-off, some celebrities. A lot of them like Trump. The rich ones trust the candidate with their money, he said.
Those without much money like that Trump is spontaneous. Maybe, they say, despite his hard talk now, he'll decide to do something big to help Hispanics.
A few have asked Yosmar to use his magic to give Trump an edge.
"I wouldn't help," Yosmar said he tells them. "No matter how much you pay me."
His powers, he said, aren't meant for such things as swaying soccer games or elections.
Yosmar prides himself on seeing things crystal clear, but he's baffled by the Hispanic Trump love.
Maybe, he said, it's like the saying goes:
"Sometimes it's easier to get a glass of water from a crazy person than it is from a politician."
SundayMonday on 10/02/2016