La Llorona
LA LLORONA - La Llorona is a ghost figure of Mexican and Mexican-American cultures. She’s always seen as a weeping woman. According to folklore, while alive La Llorona was a woman who had several children, but she fell in love with a man who didn’t want a family. In order to stand by her man, she drowned her own children. But the, overcome with grief and guilt, she killed herself. She’s seen at night, usually along a river, a forest, or a deserted road, crying and looking for her lost children.
There are many variations to the La Llorona story. In some, she simply murdered her children and is doomed to be a ghost in eternity for her sins. In other versions of the tale, La Llorona behaves like a phantom hitchhiker. A man sees a weeping woman on a deserted road. He gives he a ride, then she vanishes from the car.
La Llorona is usually dressed all in black, but she is sometimes seen in white. She usually has long black hair and long fingernails. Most men would consider her sexy or at least seductive. But she has a dark side. To some, she appears without a face, or with the face of a bat or a horse.
------------------
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
According to folklore, La Llorona, or approximately "lah yoh-ROH-nah", Spanish for "the crying woman"), sometimes called the Woman in White or the Weeping Woman is the ghost of a woman crying for her dead children. Her appearances are sometimes held to presage death. There is much variation in tales of La Llorona, which are popular in Mexico, the United States (especially in Mexican-American communities), and to an extent the rest of the Americas.
- Wikipedia
----------------
Puerto Rico:
On this island, La Llorona, ( or Crying Woman ), has been seen in many places, and by many people. There are certain things that will happen to let you know you've seen her, you'll be driving along, at night and then-
1. You see her crying along the side of a road in the dark of night. You decide to pass her by. She will fling herself in front of your car, you hit her, feel the "THUMP" as your car runs her over. You stop and look under your car to find she isn't there!
2. You are able to pass her on the road. You look into your rear view mirror to check on her -to find her sitting in your back seat! Red from crying eyes glaring right at you, an evil look on her face! You look forward again, or turn your head to make sure you're seeing clearly, look in your mirror to check if she is still there, just to find that any of these actions you do wont mean anything -she's gone.
3. You stop and pick her up. She sits quietly and never talks, just sobs silently. Eventually you'll reach a point where she'll just disappear.
--------------
Versions:
La Llorona is a classic Southwestern folktale. She is called La Llorona, which translates in English to "the weeping woman," because of her cries at night. The general legend is that there was a beautiful young Native American Girl. A handsome man came riding into town and ended up marrying her. She had a child or maybe two or three, no one is really quite sure. When her husband left her she threw her children into the river out of madness. When she realized what she had done she ran after her children. The next day she was found dead on the river bank. They buried her, but that night they heard a shrieking cry of "AIIIEEE mis hijos!" which means "Oh my children!" Legend has it that she wanders the river at night looking for her children. Parents warned their children that if they were out late at the river at night, La Llorona might mistake them for her own children and take them.
There are many different versions to this story. Some say it originated in Spain. Some of the versions give her a name. There is a big debate about the girls sincerity. One side says she was sweet, innocent, and obedient. Women were jealous of her beauty. The other side portrays her as a beautiful girl who knew she was beautiful, and used her beauty to her advantage. Her husband has been described as a Ranchero or "Spanish Hidalgo." He either leaves her permanently or finds himself a richer lady and shows up with her. In the latter version, he stops to talk to his children and ignores her, making her jealous of her children. No one knows how she really died either. Some say she killed herself and others that she drowned. Whatever the version, the basic idea of the story remains the same.
The second version of the La Llorona story is that she appears to young men who roam about at night. The men believe she is a young, beautiful woman, but when they approach her with sexual intent in mind, she shows herself to be a hag or a terrible image of death personified.
Jimmy Santiago Baca mentions the river in his book Martin and the Meditations on the South Valley many times. He talks about the evils of the river and how it takes lives. He associates this with La Llorona. He also mentions La Llorona directly, "The silver whistling blade of La Llorona carving a small child on the muddy river bottom." Later in his book he talks about the rivers "mood of lust" swallowing up it's victims as if the river is a living, breathing being.
Many other books make reference to La Llorona. Rudolfo Anaya in his book Bless Me, Ultima mentions the river taking lives on three different occasions. The river is again associated with death and as being evil as it swallows lives. Rudolfo Anaya has another book called La Llorona which suggests that La Llorona derives from "La Melinche" ( another Spanish Folktale ). "La Melinche" helped the Spanish conquerors who invaded Mexico and her name became synonymous with one who betrays.
No one truly knows if the story of La Llorona is true or if it was made up, but it has been carried down for many generations. Stories about La Llorona have been heard in Spain. The story was told to me by my mother, who heard it from her mother and so on and so on.
La Llorona is largely associated with "evil." Men going to red light houses at night are called by La Llorona. Children who stay out at the river at night probably doing things that they shouldn't
be doing are called by La Llorona. Throughout the years the story has changed and newer literature associates La Llorona with the abused and neglected children of the world. There are many poems of lost love that mention her. She has almost become a symbol of sadness and pain instead of evil, hatred, and selfishness.
La Llorona was probably originally used as a scare tactic towards "evil behavior," but as society changes, the story is told much more to frighten small children and to tell on Halloween night. The story of La Llorona has spread to the East, and different versions of the story are told. The legend of La Llorona lives on.
------------
Mexico:
The crying woman-La Llorona:
Before Mexico was conquered by Hernan Cortez in 1519, there was a indigenous woman named "La Melinche" who befriended Hernan, and told him how he could conquer Mexico. She betrayed her own people to be with this man, who she eventually fell in love with and had 3 children. After the conquest of Mexico, Hernan left to Spain to marry a Spanish woman-leaving "La Melinche" behind to be the ridicule of all her people. She was so hurt and angry that he would do such a thing, that she, out of spite, drowned all 3 of her children in the river. She then killed herself.
Many people who would camp out in the woods can hear her crying- "Mis hijos, mis hijos, donde estan mis hijos!?!" meaning, "My children, my children, where are my children!?!"
It seems that she roams all of Mexico, for she has been seen and heard by many.
Submitted:
*La llorona
Folklore
April 15, 05
Please allow me, to tell you the real version of "La llorona" since I
am mexican by birth and heart, and a witness of this legend.
Happened in remote times, 10 years before the conquest of the Aztec
land, apeared many premonitions announcing the fall of tenochtitlan ,
the capital of the Mexican empire, among them is the appearance of a
dressed lady of such a beautiful white dress that those who saw her,
assured that she wore the stellar mantel as clothes. This woman, was
Coahuicoatl (Woman-snake) mother of the sun, and protector of Mexico
and its surroundings, screaming with voice that saddened the one that
listened to it "Oh my children, where will I take you" "Oh my
children that we should go far", the magicians of the time, didn't
achieve to decipher none of the premonitions and in 1527 the empire
fell down.
During the colonial time, people continued hearing this woman, now
nicknamed "la Llorona" by those who ignored the Mexican history,
believed that she was the ghost a woman that complained for the death
of her children, and they hid in her houses and prayed.
Today, 500 years after the great defeat, a sorrow is still heard in
the whole country, in lonely places, a lament for the sons of Mexico.
Alfredo
Mexico City
~*~
The unexpected
Urban Legend
5/10/05
now this is a story all about how my live got flipped-serd up side
down and I like to take a minute just sit there and I'll tell you how
I saw la llorona were????
well it was a breeze night and I was walking back from
cotillion practice and I heard a noise it was somebody (la llorona)
calling out mis hijo, mis hijos, donde estan mis hijos? I quietly
walked don to the river side and I saw a mist it looked like a women
looking,searching in the river (water) so I tried to get closer to see
what it was exactly, but I did it very quietly when I heard those
words again "mis hijos", "mis hijos" as I got near the words get
closer.I said screw it and walked away slowly.
and that is the story all about how my life got flipped-serd up side
down and I'm glad you took a minute just sitting right there and read
the story I wrote for all you people out there.
by: Raul jr. T.
Chicago
