In the United States, October brings Halloween, a time of scary stories about ghosts, goblins, and witches. But in Mexico, scary stories are a part of a rich tradition that spans centuries, and are woven into the very fabric of its culture. These stories have been handed down to each generation as tales of fact, not fiction. Tales of spirits, brujos (witches), and the paranormal are told, and even reported in the news, almost daily throughout the year.
Starting with this article, and for the next 3 weeks, we will be retelling a story from Mexico’s legendary tales of the paranormal.
La Llorona
Perhaps one of Mexico’s most known and retold tales is that of La Llorona (the crying woman). The story of La Llorona is told throughout Latin America and many Hispanic regions of the United States. Each location has its own version of La Llorona, but they all share some basic details. That is of a woman rejected by her husband or lover, who then kills her children in a lake or river, and is condemned to wonder for eternity in search of them, weeping as she wanders.
Here is one of the oldest versions of La Llorona; In colonial times, there was a beautiful woman by the name of Maria, also known as “La Malinche’. She was a mistress to the conquistador, Hernan Cortes. According to the legend, she had two sons by Cortes. One day, Cortes decided to return to Spain with his two sons. Maria, not being of Spanish blood, was considered of a lower class and could not accompany him. She escaped with her children, but was discovered by Cortes’s men. Before she could be captured, she took out a knife and stabbed her babies and threw their bodies into a lake. She then kills herself by drowning. It is told that when she reached the gates of heaven, she is asked about her children. She is not permitted to enter until she finds them. Returning to earth, Maria wanders in search of her missing children, while crying in despair. Thus she earns the name “La Llorona”, or the crying woman.
The story of La Llorona is often times told to children. They are admonished to behave or La Llorona will snatch them away!
Here is a a short film produced by some very young film makers about one version of La Llorona.