Tag Archives: la llorona

La Llorona de Guanajuato

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 77
Residence: California
Performance Date: 2019
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

“In Guanajuato there was a beautiful woman who had a husband that was a Count. When her husband left to work, he would always return very late. One day the wife found out that he was cheating on her. She was furious and wanted to punish him. She thought of many ways and one night she thought that when her husband returned one night, he would find his children with slit throats. She carried this idea out and the night came where her husband arrived with the children dead. The husband went crazy at the sight of his children. His screams brought the neighbors to their home, where they took his wife to the police. The wife was sentenced to be burned at the stake in a white dress. Before she was burned, a priest convinced the wife to repent for the sin she had committed. Her regret for her sins was immediate and she howled these words “Mis hijos! Ay mis hijos!” They burned her and she continued to yell this until her death. From that point on, the people of Guanajuato talk about a woman who walks around downtown Guanajuato yelling “Ay mis hijos.” Some have even seen her roam in the white dress she died in.

 

Context:

The informant is a 77-year-old Spanish speaking woman, born in Mexico. Her grandmother told her this story and the informant has passed the tale along to her children and grandchildren. She believes that the tale is a warning in decisions that are made in moments of absolute rage.

 

Analysis

I agree with the informant, this crime committed by La Llorona was that of a crime of passion which could have been avoided. The saddest part of the tale is that because of the woman being blinded by rage, the young lives of her children were ended.

La Llorona in Venezuela

Nationality: Venezuelan
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USA, New York
Performance Date: 04/20/2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: Are you allowed to use ghost stories for your project?

 

Interviewer: Yeah actually, I thought more people would tell me ghost stories but it’s only been like one.

 

Informant: Because back in Venezuela a really well known one is the legend of La Llorona.

 

Interviewer: What? That’s a thing in Venezuela too? I thought it was a Mexican thing.

 

Informant: Well, everyone I knew there knew La Llorona, so I’m guessing it’s a South America thing.

 

Interviewer: Yeah yeah, that’s cool. I think it’ll be interesting to see how it differs to the legend I’ve heard back home. Can you tell me how you remember it?

 

Informant: Basically, La Llorona, she was this young woman that fell in love with a soldier, and they have a child. Then the dude leaves, to war or something, and never comes back. The woman has no idea of how to take care of a baby by herself, and she gets so frustrated from the baby crying that she eventually kills him with her own hands. She becomes insane, and even starts kidnapping other people’s kids to kill them as well.

 

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s kinda different from the version I know. I remember her having 3 kids, and them.. Getting lost or drowning in a river, I think? She kills herself out of sadness, but doesn’t really pass on because of the regret. And when her spirit shows up, she screams “Ay, mis hijos!” (lit. “Oh, my children!”), which is why the spirit was named “La Llorona” (lit. “The Crying Woman.”)

 

Informant: Ah yes she also cries for her children in the version I know, I guess thats why the name is the same everywhere. But I think to us it was mostly a way to scare kids into behaving. My mom always said that if I wasn’t good the Llorona would kidnap me.

 

Different Versions

Most notably, the legend of La Llorona is being adapted into a modern horror film The Curse of La Llorona (2019). The legend has been adapted into film several times before, though. This particular film seems to be loosely based on the Mexican version of the folktale, according to the synopsis.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4913966/


A written version of the legend of La Llorona is featured in José Alvares’s Leyendas Mexicanas (1998).

La LLorona – A Mexican Legend

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 27
Occupation: Factory Woker
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/20/19
Primary Language: Spanish

Piece: 

The only thing I grew up with is probably the same thing you grew up with, The legend of La LLorona. The legend states that a woman once drowned her kids in a river and forever hated herself for it. So when she died her soul still mourned the loss of her kids so her ghost roams the streets of Mexico crying for her kids. People say that if you hear her, and she sounds like she’s far away, then it means she’s really close to you. The same goes for the opposite, if you hear her close-by it means she’s really far away.

Background information: The informant is my cousin who grew up in a small village in Mexico. He is about 7 years older than I am.

Context: As described, this is something the informant heard a lot as a kid. Parents would use the legend of La LLorona to frighten their kids so they wouldn’t stay out too late at night.

Personal analysis: I never thought the legend of La LLorona would become such a well known legend. Seeing Disney turn it into a movie really put into perspective how exploitative capitalism can be. I take great joy in hearing legends like this being passed down from family members. But seeing a corporation use it to make money greatly discredits it.

For another version of this legend, see Mexico.mx. (2019). Horror Stories: The Legend of La Llorona. [online] Available at: https://www.mexico.mx/en/articles/horror-stories-the-legend-of-la-llorona [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019].

“La Llorona”

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Residence: Colorado
Performance Date: 4-17-19
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Main Piece: “The story of La Llorona, was one that my mom used to tell me a lot when I was a kid. The story goes that there was this lady who would go to the river and cry… and she would always be crying… every day. She would go to the river because one day years ago, when she went out to the river, she took her children with her and just drowned them cause she was possessed. So she felt horrible and ever since that day she would go down to the river every day and cry. My mom used to say that if I was bad, La Llorona would come and get me, and then take me to the river and drown me. My mom even said that one time she saw her when she was a child, and she was convinced that she existed. La Llorona would always be described as wearing a veil. One day when my mom was younger and she was home, she went outside and sine she grew up on a ranch there were a bunch of corn fields that lined the property. And while she was outside, she looked over and standing at the edge of the cornfield there was a lady with a veil standing in-front of the corn field.”

 

Background: UV knows this myth from his mother from when he was growing up in Mexico. His mother would tell him this story along with his other siblings, and he said that it always scared him. He mentioned that this was a very common myth that was told in Mexico, and that almost everybody he knew had been told some variation of this story. It was something that was very prevalent in UV’s life. UV also discussed that when he heard this story, that the themes and the message he got out of it was that, La Llorona represented the consequences if you do bad. Probably not a demon, but if you disobey your parents and if you do bad things then bad things will happen to you. Specifically in this case since he was told this as a child, he said that it further reinforced his obedience because he didn’t want anything to happen to him so he made sure to be kind and follow the rules so that La Llorona wouldn’t come get him.

 

Context of Performance: UV told me this story while we were hanging out at my apartment and talking about the different stories and myths that our parents used to tell us when we were kids. We were also talking about how the story of La Llorona was being made into a live action film, and he wanted to tell me the story that he had heard when he was a child so that we could see how it compared to the new movie.

 

Analysis: Being from America, I was vaguely familiar with this story but only from a very surface level. It was certainly interesting to hear how dark this story was and especially the consequences that come from it. Given that this was mainly a story to be told to children, it was just surprising to me to hear about a specter figure who would seek children who were bad and then drown them if she got a hold of them. But this story may simply seem dark to me because American myths for children are generally more lighthearted, and my own cultural bias may be playing into this. Based on the conversation I had with UV, I find that this story is a pretty effective tool for parents to use to ensure their children do not disobey them or act out. UV mentioned that Mexico is very big on respect and especially obeying your family, so this story certainly reinforces that idea for young kids. I think in some ways, this story could also even remind parents to keep an eye on their children so that they aren’t getting into trouble. La Llorona may be a scary specter for children, but it may also even represent a looming danger around children, one that parents must always make sure they are aware of so that they can keep their children safe.

 

For another version of this legend, see:

The Curse of La Llorona. Directed Michael Chaves. Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2019.

La Llorona

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: Early 40s
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 21 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Context: I was teaching a class of 6th graders through the Joint Education Project (JEP) in a middle school near USC. Almost all of the students in the class are of Latino descent. When I asked the class to tell me any legends that they knew, this was the most commonly known one amongst the students (whose names have been replaced with aliases). 

Discussion

Instructor: Can anyone tell me a legend that they have heard of? Maybe one I would not know (the students knew that I was from Ireland and might not know some of their culture’s legends).

Angel: Oh sir, sir! (raising his hand high)

Instructor: Yes, Angel. (gesturing to him to speak)

Angel: La Llorona is a legend.

Instructor: Who’s that?

Angel: She’s like a evil spirit that roams around at night near lakes n stuff and if you hear her scream or…eh…see her, I think (slowed down expressing unsureness), it means you’re gunna die soon.

Instructor: Where did you learn this legend?

Angel: My mom told me.

Instructor: Has anyone else heard of this legend?

Most of the students nodded or said ‘yeh’ or ‘uhuhh’ in response.

Mr. Salamander (presiding teacher): When I was a kid, my mom told me that story too. It’s to scare kids to keep them from wandering around at night, especially near lakes or rivers ye’know? La Llorona means like uh…weeping lady.

Instructor: Do you know the backstory to the legend?

Mr. Salamander: Yah. Apparently, she drowned her kids after her husband left her for a younger woman and so know she is cursed to wander the Earth as a spirit. So she weeps for her children and looks for other kids to drown or replace her own or something.

Analyses

Clearly this legend has a didactic purpose to keep children from wandering at night, especially near bodies of water. Legends can be useful in this way because children don’t have as much of an appreciation for how dangerous the world can be like adults do. Children have a tendency to think that they’re somehow indestructible and can put themselves in dangerous situations, like standing on the edge of river banks, without appreciating the threat of the situation. These kinds of stories help to give those dangers a face, and a scary face at that, which children respond to better than mere adult interdictions. An adult saying, ‘stay away from the water, it’s dangerous’ will not be taken to heart by a child as much as them saying, ‘remember, if you go too close to the river, La Llorona might come out weeping and drag you under the water’.