23 La Llorona (Urban Folklore And Legends)
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This article is from the Ghost Stories FAQ, by obiwan obiwan@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
23 La Llorona (Urban Folklore And Legends)
La Llorona is the legend of a woman who has lost her children, and
who can be heard, and sometimes seen, weeping in the night. La
Llorona (the name means "She who weeps" in Spanish) is in most stories
said to be Mexican, although sometimes she is a woman who lived in the
American Southwest. As with most urban legends, there are many
variations of La Llorona, but the central plot remains intact: The
woman has lost her children, usually because she herself has killed
them because she wants to marry a man who doesn't want any children.
She is so anguished over the depressing circumstances that she kills
herself as well, and is thus doomed forever to roam her native land,
weeping and wringing her hands. Sometimes she is said to be searching
for her children, and sometimes she is said to appear only as a
warning to those who see her.
Here is a typical version of the La Llorona legend by Proserpina
(proserp@duckmail.uoregon.edu):
"Sightings abound throughout the Southwest. Supposedly she drowned
her children in the acequia (irrigation ditch,) and now she roams the
ditches looking for her, or any, children. Usually the story is told
with the intentions of keeping kiddies away from the ditches, so they
won't drown."
-The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits- by Rosemary Guiley tells a
more traditional Mexican version, which occurs in Mexico City around
1550. According to legend, an indian princess fell in love with a
Mexican nobleman. The nobleman promised to marry her, but betrayed
her and married someone else instead. The ultimate result of this
bit o' treachery is that the princess murdered her children in a fit
of rage, with a knife given to her by the nobleman. Afterwards, she
wandered the streets crying for her children, and was eventually
hanged for her sins. Since then her ghost has been searching for her
children.
Another interesting feature of the La Llorona legend is that it
appears to have merged with the Vanishing Hitchhiker legend (see
below). La Llorona is reported by some to hitch a ride on a road
near to the place where she drowned her children.
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