Legend – La Llorona
Es que dicen que andaba una llorona que llebaba a sus ninos y luego los perdio. Entonces ella aparecia cada vez que pasaba por un rio y que ella diario pasaba y pasaba llorando pos andaba buscando sus hijos y dicia Hay mis hijos ando buscando mis hijos y pos no nunca los encontraba cada rato pasaba llorando y nunca los encontro.
Its because they say that there was a Llorona that had her kids and then lost them. Next she appeared every time that would by a river and that she always would pass and would pass crying well was looking for her kids and would say Oh my kids Im searching my kids and well no never found them every while would pass crying and never found them.
Well, they say that there was a Llorona that was with her kids and then lost them. She would appear every time that she passed by a river and would be crying since she was looking for her kids. She would proclaim Oh my kids Im searching for my kids and she never found them. Occasionally she would pass by the river crying to no avail.
Agueda says that she first heard the story in Mexico. He grandmother would tell her the tale in order to try to keep her and her siblings from playing near the river while dark. She says she never really believed in the Llorona but the thought that it could be true would scare her and in fact keep her away from the river. Not only would the story be used to keep them from the river, but also to keep the kids close to their parents whenever they went out somewhere or when the kids were playing around the house without supervision. She says that supposedly if they left the side of the parents, that the Llorona would take them in the place of her own kids.
Theres definitely a difference between this version of the Llorona and other versions. In other versions of the tale, she kills or drowns her children in the river, not lose them. Maybe whats going on here is that her grandmother altered the story in order to impose some fear into the mind of the kids. She wanted be able to keep the kids close to the house because they lived in a house with a huge farm. In order to keep the kids from wandering off anywhere, this would be able keep the kids in line.
See:
Sylvia Ross (2006, January). The Zen of La Llorona. News from Native California, 20(2), 9-10. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) database. (Document ID: 1213348701).