Legend – La Llorona
Some lady like drowned her kids or some shit and now she cries around the streets, calling their names and shit.
Jimmie says that his mother told him the story when he was about 6. He thinks its just a made up story that his parents and other grownups tell to their children in order to keep them inside the house.
Theres definitely a variation between this version of the Llorona and other versions. Jimmie states that she goes around the streets crying. In other stories she roams around near a river or some body of water. It is clear that his parents did want to scare him and keep him inside. Many Mexican parents like to scare their children so that they behave and do what the parents say. It reminds me of the fictional monster El Cucuy that parents tell their children when they go to bed. If they get out of bed, the Cucuy will get them. The same concept applies to this Llorona: if children go outside at night the Llorona will get them.
Also, Jimmies adds vulgarity to the legend. The constant use of the word shit depicts how people talk in Inglewood. Shit and many other curse words are used so commonly in everyday language that theyve really lost their meaning, which allows them to be constantly repeated without offending almost anybody. In the first instance that it is used, shit replaces the words thing. In the second instance it replaces the word stuff. The word shit has become almost like a chameleon, in the sense that it can replace many words and people will still understand what the person is trying to say.
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).