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{{Short description|Vengeful ghost in Mexican folklore}}
According to ], '''La Llorona''' (pronounced "lah yoh-roh-nah", ] for "the crying woman"), sometimes called the '''Woman in White''' or the '''Weeping Woman''' is the ] of a woman crying for her dead children, whose appearances are sometimes held to presage ]. There is much variation in tales of La Llorona, which are popular in ], the ] (especially in the US' large ] communities), and to an extent the rest of the ].
{{Other uses}}
], Mexico, 2015]]


'''{{lang|es|La Llorona}}''' ({{IPA|es-419|la ʝoˈɾona|lang}}; {{gloss|the Crying Woman, the Weeping Woman, the Wailer}}) is a ] in Mexican folklore who is said to roam near ] mourning her children whom she drowned in a jealous rage after discovering her husband was unfaithful to her. Whoever hears her crying either suffers misfortune or death and their life becomes unsuccessful in every field.<ref>{{cite web |last=Delsol |first=Christine |date=9 October 2012 |title=Mexico's legend of La Llorona continues to terrify people {{!}} in june 14 2023 she was seen naked walking in the streets on santa teresa at 2:19 am reporters say she has seen with 2 children's |url=https://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexicomix/article/Mexico-s-legend-of-La-Llorona-continues-to-3933072.php |access-date=7 October 2020 |website=sfgate.com}}</ref>
==The story==
] as "La Malinche" in the ] Mexican ] ''La Llorona'']] Many versions of La Llorona's origin exist. Some describe a beautiful young woman in ] or ], who married or was seduced by a local man, by whom she had several children. The woman is sometimes given a ]; Sofia, Laura, and Mar&iacute;a are sometimes used. The man leaves her, sometimes for another woman, sometimes for reasons of employment, and sometimes just to be away from La Llorona and her several children. At any rate, La Llorona chooses to ], almost always by ], either to spare them a life of ], to free herself to seek another man, or for revenge against their absent or stray father.


==Origins==
The tales vary mostly in the several motives they give to the mother and father for the murder. The version popular in ] says that "La Llorona" drowned her children in the ] when she could no longer support them. On nights with a ], says the story, La Llorona can be heard crying near the river.


Known for being Malintzin in her original nomenclature, today, the lore of La Llorona is well known in Mexico and the southwestern United States.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leddy |first=Betty |date=1948 |title=La LLorona in Southern Arizona |journal=] |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=272–277 |doi=10.2307/1497551 |jstor=1497551 |hdl=10150/624782|hdl-access=free }}</ref>
In south ], however, the story of La Llorona is that of a beautiful girl who attracts the attentions of a wealthy man's son though she is herself very poor. The lovers secretly marry and set up a household; they have several children. Unfortunately, a day comes when the young man's father announces that he has arranged a marriage for his son to a young woman within their ]. The young man tells his secret wife that he must leave her and that he will never see her again. She is driven mad by anger and a broken heart, and takes their children to a river where she drowns them to spite her husband. When her husband finds out he and several townspeople go to find her, but she kills herself before they can apprehend her. She goes to ] and faces the judgement of ]. God asks her, "Where are your children?" to which she replies, "I do not know." God asks her three times and she replies with the same answer. God then ] her to walk the earth to search for her children. According to this tale, it is wise to avoid La Llorona, as she is known for drowning passersby in an attempt to replace her dead children.


The earliest documentation of La Llorona is traced back to 1550 in Mexico City {{Citation needed|reason=no source of date given|date=June 2024}}. But there are theories about her story being connected to specific Aztec mythological creation stories. "The Hungry Woman" includes a wailing woman constantly crying for food, which has been compared to La Llorona's signature nocturnal wailing for her children.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Padilla |first=Juan Raez |date=2014 |title=Crying for Food: The Mexican Myths of 'La Llorona' and 'The Hungry Woman' in Cherríe L. Moraga |journal=] |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=205–2017 |doi=10.1179/1477570014Z.00000000084 |s2cid=162305702}}</ref> The motherly nature of La Llorona's tragedy has been compared to ], an Aztec goddess deity of motherhood. Her seeking of children to keep for herself is significantly compared to ], known as "Our Lady Mother" or ] (who's also comparable to the ], another significant mother figure in Mexican culture), also a monster that devours filth or sin. She was in rage so much that she drowned her children and then was so sad that she drowned herself and now is called the weeping woman.
In another variant, La Llorona is a naive but innocent woman forced into a ] with the father of her child; in this case, it is La Llorona's father or her husband who kills the children. La Llorona attempts to stop the murders, and dies in the attempt.


The legend of La Llorona is traditionally told throughout ], ] and northern ].{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}}
Another version of the story of La Llorona is told in ]. According to this version, she lived in ]. She went to get her ], and was told that she was going to die, and so were her children. That same night, while they were sleeping, a big storm hit their village, causing the river to overflow its banks. The house was swept away by the flood, and all of her children died. La Llorona went on a journey to find her children, following the river, but died without ever seeing them again.
{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is sometimes conflated with {{lang|es|]}},<ref name="Leal 2005 134">{{cite book |last=Leal |first=Luis |date=2005 |title=Feminism, Nation and Myth: La Malinche |chapter=The Malinche-Llorona Dichotomy: The Origin of a Myth |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/607766319 |publisher=Arte Publico Press |page=134 |oclc=607766319 }}</ref> the ] woman who served as {{lang|es|]|italic=no}}' interpreter and also bore his son.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref> {{lang|es|La Malinche}} is considered both the mother of the modern Mexican people and a symbol of national treachery for her role in aiding the Spanish.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cypess |first=Sandra Messinger |year=1991 |title=La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth |publisher=] |location=Austin |isbn=9780292751347 }}</ref>


Stories of weeping female phantoms are common in the folklore of both ] and ] cultures. Scholars have pointed out similarities between {{lang|es|La Llorona}} and the {{lang|nah|]}} of ],{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}} as well as ] and ] of ].{{sfn|Norget|2006|p=146}} Author ]'s investigation into the legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}}, published in '']'', found common elements of the story in the German folktale ] dating from 1486.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Radford|first1=Ben|title=Mysterious New Mexico|date=2014|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque|isbn=978-0-8263-5450-1|page=228|quote=While the classic image of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} was likely taken from an Aztec goddess named {{lang|nah|Cihuacōātl}}, the narrative of her legend has other origins. As Bacil Kirtley (1960) wrote in Western Folklore, "During the same decade that {{lang|es|La Llorona}} was first mentioned in Mexico, a story, seemingly already quite old, of '{{lang|de|Die Weisse Frau}}' ('The White Lady')—which reproduces many of the features consistently recurring in the more developed versions of '{{lang|es|La Llorona}}', was recorded in Germany"; references to {{lang|de|Die Weisse Frau}} date back as early as 1486. The story of the White Lady follows a virtually identical plot to the classical {{lang|es|La Llorona}} story.}}</ref> {{lang|es|La Llorona}} also bears a resemblance to the ancient ] tale of the ]dess ], in which ], ]' wife, learned of his affair with Lamia and killed all the children Lamia had with Zeus. Out of jealousy over the loss of her own children, Lamia kills other women's children.<ref name="Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do">{{cite book|title=Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do|url=https://archive.org/details/folkloreinallofu0000unse|url-access=registration|page=|publisher=University of North Texas Press|isbn=9781574412239|year=2006}}</ref>
Generally, La Llorona becomes a sort of ]. Her restless spirit walks abroad at night, crying "¡O hijos mios!" or "¡Ay mis hijos!" (O my children!). Those unlucky enough to see or hear her are marked for death themselves. Sometimes she is dressed all in white; other times, in black. She is weeping, and in some tellings her eyes are empty sockets. The New Mexican La Llorona hunts after children; some say that she drowns them in the river.


The ] is an important text that originated in late Mexico in 1519 {{Citation needed|reason=Mexico was founded in 1821, should be New Spain|date=June 2024}} , a quote from which is, "The sixth omen was that many times a woman would be heard going along weeping and shouting. She cried out loudly at night, saying, "Oh my children, we are about to go forever." Sometimes she said, "Oh my children, where am I to take you?"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Florentine Codex, Book 12, Ch 01 {{!}} Early Nahuatl Library|url=https://enl.uoregon.edu/fcbk12ch01|access-date=2021-05-11|website=enl.uoregon.edu}}</ref>
The story also may change based on the location of the tellers. For example, the story told in a seaside town with no river may have the children drowning in the surf. In ] ] the rivers have often been lined in concrete and turned into ] channels, and in local ]s La Llorona may be described as wandering the floor of the channels or the street and highway overpasses above them.


While the roots of the {{lang|es|La Llorona}} legend appear to be pre-Hispanic,<ref name="Leal 2005 134"/> the earliest published reference to the legend is a 19th-century sonnet by Mexican poet ].{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}} The poem makes no reference to infanticide, rather {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is identified as the ghost of a woman named Rosalia who was murdered by her husband.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carpio |first=Manuel |date=1879 |title=Poesias del Sr. Dr. Don Manuel Carpio con su biografia escrita por el Sr. Dr. D. José Bernardo Couto. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011682546 |location=Mexico |publisher=La Enseñanza |page=299 }}</ref>
==Comparisons to figures in other cultures==
The most direct analogue with the La Llorona story is that of the Greek ], who likewise murdered her children after being abandoned by ]. Local ] folklore possibly influenced the legend; ] ] or ] was said to have appeared shortly prior to the invasion of Mexico by ], weeping for her lost children, an omen of the fall of the Aztec empire.


==Regional versions==
La Llorona is also sometimes identified with ], the ] woman who served as Cortés' interpreter and who some say betrayed Mexico to the ] ]s. In one folk story of La Malinche, she becomes Cortés' mistress and bears him a child, only to be abandoned so that he could marry an ]ic Spanish ].
The legend has a wide variety of details and versions. In a typical version of the legend, a beautiful woman named María marries a rich '']ero / ]''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fuller |first=Amy |date=31 October 2017 |orig-date=November 2015 |title=The Wailing Woman |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/wailing-woman |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=] |location=Mexico}}</ref> to whom she bears two children. One day, María sees her husband with another woman and in a fit of blind rage, she drowns their children in a river, which she immediately regrets. Unable to save them and consumed by guilt,<ref>{{cite web |last=Delsol |first=Christine |date=9 October 2012 |title=Mexico's legend of La Llorona continues to terrify |url=https://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexcomix/article/Mexico-s-legend-of-La-Llorona-continues-to-3933072.php |access-date=7 October 2020 |website=sfgate.com}}</ref> she drowns herself as well but is unable to enter the ], forced to be in ] and roam this earth until she finds her children.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dimuro |first=Gina |date=2019-01-22 |title=The Legend Of La Llorona: The Wailing Woman Who Murdered Her Children |url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/la-llorona |access-date=2021-05-11 |website=All That's Interesting |language=en-US}}</ref>
In another version of the story, her children are ], and she drowns them so that their father cannot take them away to be raised by his new wife.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Simerka |first=Barbara |date=2000 |title=Women Hollering: Contemporary Chicana Reinscriptions of La Llorona Mythography |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/35829973/simerka_llorona.pdf?1417735311=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DWomen_Hollering_Contemporary_Chicana_Rei.pdf&Expires=1602099801&Signature=eRV7qyMzi~7ZSswaXXtRkr3hHtEonM5PZb-maR39uDaMJpPjcJTsJv5-xQsIlb~oJa~LiFScwL01wvlV7QpQDwXEXUECjWwQVUtR01tQRaENvVguMMRmT6RGE6FUPYXkO3ur22cY3Kuz7xzBLpQdAAmW5Qchg~5hvIrV~ntn1nvPii1q0PAGygigP~IRTOza8gCotN6X84Q~HBGh-B5WC8~4zdN3yA-f7Jk4-InIixhl3QMdvUfJOtk0Pew3Cfjsj4wwHrGEXzTU0eQnzOAdYUBFn~~UaM3G3Fq6OZxGNSyMva7qlbORGwsk4IC~x5Jt7LV6dfLx524Ys5tuP~Wd-A__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA |journal=Confluencia |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=49–58}}{{dead link|date=May 2021}}</ref> Recurring themes in variations on the {{lang|es|La Llorona}} myth include a white, wet dress, nocturnal wailing, and an association with water.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carbonell |first=Ana María |date=1999 |title=From Llorona to Gritona: Coatlicue in Feminist Tales by Viramontes and Cisneros |url=http://www.whereareyouquetzalcoatl.com/mesoamerica/coatlicue/Carbonell_1999.pdf |journal=MELUS |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=53–74 |doi=10.2307/467699 |jstor=467699}}</ref>


===Mexico===
Folklore from wider ] has also added to the legend. Tales of ]s and other female spirits whose wails presage death have influenced the story, and La Llorona's association with pools and rivers links her water-] like the ], ], the ] and ]. European ] lore is full of hauntings by women clad in white, whose restless spirits seek vengeance for some wrong they have suffered or who are ] to a twilight existence reliving the tragedy of their lives. There are also similarities with the ] ], which the ] likens to "] weeping for her children, and would not be comforted."
The legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is deeply rooted in Mexican popular culture. Her story is told to children to encourage them not to wander off in the dark and near bodies of ] such as rivers and lakes alone. Her spirit is often evoked in artwork,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ibarra |first=Enrique Ajuria |date=2014 |title=The Gothic and the Everyday |chapter=Ghosting the Nation: La Llorona, Popular Culture, and the Spectral Anxiety of Mexican Identity |pages=131–151 |location=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1057/9781137406644_8 |isbn=978-1-349-48800-1 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137406644_8}}</ref> such as that of ].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coerver |first=Don M. |date=2004 |title=Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781576071328 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSred4NyOKoC}}</ref> {{lang|es|La Cihuacoatle, Leyenda de la Llorona}} is a yearly waterfront theatrical performance of the legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} set in the ]s of the ] borough of Mexico City,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ksat.com/entertainment/2019/10/31/mysterious-tales-behind-la-llorona-island-of-the-dolls-in-mexico-city/ |title=Mysterious tales behind La Llorona, Island of the Dolls in Mexico City. |first=RJ |last=Marquez |date=2019|website=ksat.com |access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref> which was established in 1993 to coincide with the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-weeping-woman-in-mexico |title=How Mexico's Most Sorrowful Spirit Became a Cultural Phenomenon |first=Winnie |last=Lee |date=30 October 2019|website=atlasobscura.com |access-date=7 October 2020}}</ref> In 1930s the reference and representation of ''La Llorona'' is seen in the production of films. ''La Llorona'' is portrayed as a vengeful and evil monster in many films. The classic film ''La Venganza de la Llorona'' (1974) produced by ] is one of the many popular renditions of ''La Llorona.''<ref name=":0" />


In ] culture, the tale of ''La Llorona'' acts as a warning particularly for women on what is considered acceptable behavior within the culture. In Mexican culture ''La Llorona'' represents a vengeful lover who goes from a resentful wife to a monstrous mother who drowns her children after discovering her husband's infidelity. Chicana writers and artists redefined ''La Llorona'' based on embodied experience and the social and political pressures they faced. The rise of ] and the ] encouraged Chicana writers and artists to reinvent their historical and cultural Mexican presence in the ]. ''La Llorona'' was rewritten as a strong woman who had been forced to accommodate to the colonizers ruling and had been punished for challenging traditional female roles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perez |first=Domino Renee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygTROFl1ojkC&lpg=PR7&ots=wfCxSf_256&dq=la%20llorona%20in%20chicano%20culture&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=There Was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture |date=2008|publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-71811-1 |language=en}}</ref> Chicanas related to the agony that ''La Llorona'' faced while being stripped of her identity by Spanish colonizers. ''La Llorona'' symbolizes the pain and grief and became a metaphorical representation of the challenges and struggles faced by marginalized groups.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Chemers |first=Michael M. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003432524 |title=The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre: Further Readings on the Aesthetics of Disqualification |last2=Santana |first2=Analola |date=2024 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-43252-4 |edition=1st |location=London |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003432524}}</ref>
The contemporary murderess ], who drowned her children in a ] pond, was likened in news reports to La Llorona.

=== Guatemala ===
According to the local legend, in ] lived a woman who had an affair with a lover. She became pregnant and gave birth to a child named Juan de la Cruz who she drowned so her husband would not know. The woman was condemned in the afterlife to search for her murdered son in every place where there is a pool of water. She does that by crying out for him{{Emdash}}hence her ] of the Wailing Woman ({{Langx|es|La Llorona|links=no|label=none}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lara |first=César |title=Por los Viejos Barrios de la Ciudad de Guatemala |publisher=Artemis y Edinter |year=1984 |location=Guatemala |pages=149, 212 |language=es |trans-title=Through the Old Neighborhoods of Guatemala City}}</ref> It is a popular scary legend that in one iteration or another has been told to generations of children. The terrifying cry of "Oh, my children!!" (¡Ay mis hijos!) is well known due to the story. Additionally, one peculiar detail is that when a person hears the cry from afar means that the ghost is nearby, but if the cry is heard nearby, it means the ghost is afar. Someone unlucky enough to face the specter is "won over" to the afterlife, never to be seen again.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. The legend is deeply rooted in Antigua Guatemala, the former capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala (current Central America and southern state of Chiapas, Mexico)<ref>Cuevas García, Roberto (2010). Llorona. Guatemala: Artemis Edinter.</ref>

===Ecuador===
Throughout ], there are various versions of the folktale of ''La Llorona''. The Ecuadorian version often features a woman known as either ''La Llorona de Los Ríos'' (The Crying Woman of the Rivers) or ''La Llorona de Los ]'' (The Crying Woman of the Andes) depending on the region. In this story, she lost her lover and, in desperation, drowned her children in a river.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tarpeia {{!}} Roman Mythology, Betrayal & Rock {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarpeia |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> She now cries uncontrollably and searches the riverbanks for her missing children. Many similarities exist between the traditional Mexican version of ''La Llorona'', in which many people are familiar with.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tarpeia {{!}} Roman Mythology, Betrayal & Rock {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarpeia |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Nonetheless, one of its main focuses is the environment of Ecuadorian rivers and mountains. The Ecuadorian ''La Llorona'' is known for her connection to rivers, like the ], where locals say they can hear her somber cries at night. The tale of ''La Llorona'' warns kids about disobedience and the importance of avoiding bodies of water and locations at night, similar in other versions around the world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tarpeia {{!}} Roman Mythology, Betrayal & Rock {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarpeia |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

===United States===
In the ], the story of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is told to scare children into good behavior,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leddy |first=Betty |date=1988 |title=La Llorona in Southern Arizona |journal=Perspectives in Mexican American Studies |volume=q |pages=9–16 |url=https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/624782/pmas_01_9_16.pdf?sequence=1}}</ref> sometimes specifically to deter children from playing near dangerous water.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Raheem |first1=N. | last2=Archambault |first2=S. |last3=Arellano |first3=E. |last4=Gonzales |first4=M. |last5=Kopp |first5=D. |last6=Rivera |first6=J. |last7=Guldan |first7=S. |last8=Boykin |first8=K. |last9=Oldham |first9=C. |last10=Valdez | first10=A. |last11=Colt | first11=S. |last12=Lamadrid |first12=E. |last13=Wang |first13=J. |last14=Price |first14=J. |last15=Goldstein |first15=J. |last16=Arnold |first16=P. |last17=Martin |first17=S. |last18=Dingwell |first18=E. |title=Aframework for assessing ecosystem services in acequia irrigation communities of the Upper Río Grande watershed |journal=Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water |publisher=Wiley |volume=2 |issue=5 |date=2015-06-08 |issn=2049-1948 |doi=10.1002/wat2.1091 |pages=559–575|bibcode=2015WIRWa...2..559R |s2cid=129710529 }}</ref> Also told to them is that her cries are heard as she walks around the street or near bodies of water to scare children from wandering around, resembling the stories of ''El Cucuy''. In ] indigenous to Southern California, {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is linked to the {{lang|boi|nunašɨš}}, a mythological creature with a cry similar to that of a newborn baby.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackburn |first=Thomas C. |date=1975 |title=December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520029309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2lC7XcLrzoC }}</ref> It is a very popular story.

===Venezuela===
The tale of ''La Llorona'' is set in the ] during the colonial period. ''La Llorona'' is said to be the spirit of a woman that died of sorrow after her children were killed, either by herself or by her family.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Franco|first=Mercedes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pK3wlzarBjgC&q=la+llorona+venezuela|title=Diccionario de fantasmas, misterios y leyendas de Venezuela|date=2007|publisher=El Nacional|isbn=978-980-388-390-4|language=es}}</ref><ref name=":3"/> Families traditionally place wooden crosses above their doors to ward off such spirits.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Dinneen |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdh52tIpY9UC&q=sayona&pg=PA36 |title=Culture and Customs of Venezuela |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-30639-6 |language=en}}</ref>

===Spain===

The tales of ''La Llorona'' are seen differently in ], as detailed in ''Elvira, La Llorona'' published by Jose Maria Leon y Dominguez, a Jesuit academic from Cadiz. The tale begins with a woman named Elvira who experiences a devastating life which slowly led to her transformation into the spectral figure ''La Llorona.''<ref>https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/10/la-llorona-roots-branches-and-the-missing-link-from-spain/#:~:text=This%20certainly%20falls%20within%20the,through%20the%20events%20they%20described.</ref>

== Other mythologies ==
In ], the modern ] is a type of ] in ]. They come to be after a woman drowns due to suicide or murder, especially if they had an unwanted pregnancy. Then they must stay in this world for a period of time.<ref>{{cite book|author=Linda J. Ivanits|title=Russian Folk Belief|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-s36xYcqG1EC&pg=PA78|access-date=12 July 2015|date= 1989|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3088-9|page=76}}</ref>

The ] of ] and ] also features the motif of a woman who murders her children as an act of revenge against her husband, who has left her.

==In popular culture==

===Film===
]

The story of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} first appeared on film in 1933's '']'', filmed in Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024266/ |publisher=IMDB |title=The Crying Woman (1933)}}</ref> ]'s 1960 film '']'' was also shot in Mexico,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051874/ |publisher=IMDB |title=La Llorona (1960)}}</ref> as was the 1963 horror film ''],'' directed by ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055128/ |publisher=IMDB |title=The Curse of the Crying Woman (1963)}}</ref>

In a pivotal scene in the 2001 film ], ] plays ''La Llorona de Los Angeles,'' a mysterious singer who performs ''Llorando,'' a Spanish language version of ] by ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frey |first=Angelica |date=2022-07-14 |title='My voice lends itself to sadness – I carry a lot of grief' : Rebekah Del Rio, David Lynch's musical muse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/14/rebekah-del-rio-david-lynch-mulholland-drive |access-date=2024-10-01 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In keeping with the legend, the characters who witness this performance suffer severe consequences.

The 2008 Mexican horror film '']''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/km_31 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |title=KM 31}}</ref> is inspired by the legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}}.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sánchez Dávila |first=Carmen |date=2007-02-15 |title='No hay peor miedo que al fracaso', asegura Rigoberto Castañeda director de 'Kilómetro 31'. |url=http://filmeweb.net/magazine.asp?id=423 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621230341/http://filmeweb.net/magazine.asp?id=423 |archive-date=2010-06-21 |access-date=2020-06-03}} February 15, 2007. Filmweb.</ref> Additionally the early 2000s saw a spate of low-budget movies based on {{lang|es|La Llorona}}, including:
* ''The River: The Legend of La Llorona''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804525/ |title=The River: Legend of La Llorona |publisher=IMDB}}</ref>
* ''Revenge of La Llorona''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Llorona-Mary-Sanchez/dp/B0014F6QBC |title=Revenge Of La Llorona Director's Cut |date=26 February 2008 |publisher=Amazon}}</ref>
* ''The Wailer: La Llorona''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0823726/ |title=The Wailer (2005) |publisher =IMDB}}</ref>
* ''The Curse of La Llorona''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1018705/ |title=The Curse of La Llorona (2007) |publisher =IMDB}}</ref>

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is the primary antagonist in the 2007 movie '']''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0874292/ |publisher=IMDB |title=J-ok'el (2008)}}</ref> In the 2011 Mexican animated film '']'', she is portrayed as a more sympathetic character, whose children die in an accident rather than at their mother's hands.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://itunes.apple.com/mx/movie/la-leyenda-de-la-llorona/id593805874?l=en |title=''La Leyenda de la Llorona'' |date=21 October 2011 |publisher=iTunes }}</ref>

In the 2017 ] film '']'', "]", the Mexican folk song popularized by ] in 1941<ref name="jornada.com.mx">{{Cite news |url=https://www.jornada.com.mx/2008/01/11/index.php?section=opinion&article=a05a1cul|title=''Andrés Henestrosa: el hombre que dispersó sus sombras'' |website=La Jornada}}</ref> is sung by ] in her role as Mamá Imelda, joined by Antonio Sol as the singing voice of Ernesto de la Cruz.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/ |publisher=IMDB |title=Coco (2017)}}</ref>

In July 2019, ], ] and Emilie Gladstone produced a film titled '']'' for ]. The film was directed by ] and stars ], ], ] and Marisol Ramirez as La Llorona.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4913966/ |publisher=IMDB |title=The Curse of La Llorona (2019)}}</ref>

Also in 2019, ] directed the Guatemalan film '']'', starring ], which screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2019/08/toronto-film-festival-the-aeronauts-mosul-seberg-kristen-stewart-ore-to-festival-slate-1202667020/ |title=Toronto Adds ''The Aeronauts,'' ''Mosul,'' ''Seberg,'' & More To Festival Slate |work=Deadline |date=13 August 2019 |access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>

''The Legend of La Llorona'' was a film released in January 2022 and stars ], ], and ].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2022-01-11|title=The Legend of La Llorona review – holiday horror down Mexico way|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/11/the-legend-of-la-llorona-review-holiday-horror-down-mexico-way|access-date=2022-01-17|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

===Theater===
Mexican playwright ] wrote ''Unconquered Spirits'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/media/pdf/excerpts/exUnconqueredSpiritsU22.pdf |title=Unconquered Spirits |first=Josephina|last=Lopez| publisher=Dramatic Publishing}}</ref> which uses the myth of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} as a plot device. The play premiered at ]'s Little Theatre in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-05-va-62782-story.html |title=The Tears of Oppression: Josefina Lopez bases her play, 'Unconquered Spirits,' on the 'Crying Woman' legend. But in the end, her characters' fighting spirit prevails. |first=T.H. |last=McColluch |date=5 May 1995|website=] |access-date=8 October 2020}}</ref>

===Literature===
]'s 2002 ] novel, '']'' includes references to {{lang|es|La Llorona}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Farmer |first=Nancy |date=February 2002 |title=The House of the Scorpion |url=https://alaarajilearninghub.weebly.com/uploads/8/8/1/1/88113240/house_of_the_scorpion_-_nancy_farmer_copy.pdf |location=New York, New York |publisher=Atheneum Books for Young Readers }}</ref>

The legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is discussed in ]'s 2019 memoir, ''Ordinary Girls'':
{{blockquote|The scariest part was not that La Llorona was a monster, or that she came when you called her name three times in the dark, or that she could come into your room at night and take you from your bed like she'd done with her own babies. It was that once she'd been a person, a woman, a mother. And then a moment, an instant, a split second later, she was a monster.<ref>{{cite book |last=Diaz |first=Jaquira |date=2019 |title=Ordinary Girls: A Memoir|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1090696817 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |page=100 |isbn=9781616209131|oclc=1090696817 }}</ref>}}

The novel ''Paola Santiago and the River of Tears'', the first part of a young adult trilogy by Tehlor Kay Mejia, is based on the legend of La Llorona.<ref>{{Cite book|title=''Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares''|url=https://www.risingshadow.net/library/book/62195-paola-santiago-and-the-forest-of-nightmares}}</ref>

Rodolfo Anaya's novel '']'' references La Llorona, describing her as a spirit of the river without mentioning her origins.

"Advice from La Llorona" by ] is a poem exploring grief and loss.

''In Summer of the Mariposas'', by ], she serves as a mentor to the Garza Sisters.

''The Weeping Woman: Encounters with La Llorona'' by Edward Garcia Kraul and Judith Beatty, is a valuable resource that brings together of encounters and retellings of ''La Llorona'' with diverse perspectives and different regions.

Bess Lomax Hawes, an American folklorist, published his article in 1968, ''La Llorona in Juvenile Hall'' containing details of the hauntings in California's juvenile detention facility with sightings of a “weeping woman.”

Gloria Anzaldua's book ] references La Llorona as one of the three mothers of Chicanas.

''The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre: Further Readings on the Aesthetics of Disqualification'', is a valuable resource that gives insight on international perspectives on "monster" figures in writing. Makes many references to ''La Llorona'' and explores ''La Llorona'' within ] culture. <ref name=":0" />

===Music===
"]" is a Mexican folk song popularized by ] in 1941.<ref name="jornada.com.mx"/> It has since been covered by various musicians, including ],<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-aug-06-la-me-chavela-vargas-20120806-story.html |title=Defiant singer was a cultural force in Mexico |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joanbaez.com/Discography/GALV.html|title=Joan Baez – Discography, Gracias a la Vida |access-date=11 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304030830/http://www.joanbaez.com/Discography/GALV.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ],<ref name="wise-latina">{{cite web |url=http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/wise_latina/|title=Wise Latina |work=Guernica Magazine|date=October 2009 }}</ref> and ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Video: Rosalía encanta a fans al cantar 'Llorona' en Zócalo de CDMX |url=https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/tendencias/video-rosalia-encanta-a-fans-al-cantar-llorona-en-zocalo-de-cdmx/ |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=El Universal |language=es}}</ref>

North American singer-songwriter ]'s debut album '']'' (1997) explored the dark mysteries of Latin folklore. She combined a variety of musical genres including ], ] and Mexican folk music, all in the Spanish language.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |page=220 |isbn=0-19-531373-9 |volume=10 |edition=4th}}</ref> The album was certified Platinum in Canada,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cria.ca/gold/0504_g.php |title=Gold & Platinum Certification: May 2004 |publisher=The Canadian Recording Industry Association |access-date=15 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019185817/http://cria.ca/gold/0504_g.php |archive-date=19 October 2010 }}</ref> and it earned her a Canadian ] for Best Global Artist in 1998.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/la-llorona-mw0000040909 |title=Lhasa – La Llorona |last=Fulmer |first=Dave |website=] |access-date=1 July 2021}}</ref>

], a rock band from Los Angeles, California, have a song titled "She Turned Into Llorona" on their 2003 album ''Mijo Goes To Jr. College''.<ref>{{Citation |title=Manic Hispanic – Mijo Goes To Jr. College |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1735743-Manic-Hispanic-Mijo-Goes-To-Jr-College |language=en |access-date=2022-05-13}}</ref>

===Television===
{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is an antagonist in the TV series '']'', portrayed by Sarah Shahi in the ] and by Shanae Tomasevich in "Moriah" and ].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0713618/?ref_=ttep_ep1 |publisher=IMDB |title=Supernatural (2005–2020) Pilot}}</ref>

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is an antagonist in ] of the TV series '']''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2427016/ |publisher=IMDB |title=Grimm (2011–2017) La Llorona}}</ref>

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} appears in the '']'' episode "The Lonely Haunts 3: La Llorona" voiced by ]. Contrary to the usual depictions, this version of La Llorona is good and simply lonely and claims to have had twenty kids who had all grown up and left her; implying that she suffers from ].

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} appears in the '']'' episode "The Legend of the Library" voiced by Carla Tassara. Craig and the Stump Kids visit their friend Stacks at the local library to get out of the rain. When the power goes out and their fellow Creek Kids begin disappearing, Stacks believes that La Llorona is to blame. In the end, it is revealed that the "ghost" was actually Lorraine, the substitute librarian who is very serious about her job. She makes the kids promise to take good care of the library along with a warning, showing a ghostly face at the same time. Whether or not Lorraine was in fact La Llorona or the face was imagined is left ambiguous.

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} appears in the '']'' episode "Chapter 97: Ghost Stories". The characters tell ghost stories about people related to them or the town that had died. La Llorona is one. She haunts Sweetwater River and she also manages to possess Toni and take Betty's unborn child away.

{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is portrayed by drag queen, ], during the 3rd episode of ] of '']''. During this episode the queens had to show three different looks in the runway and she portrayed La Llorana in the second theme named "Significant Mother" where they needed to show an outfit based on a iconic mother.

===Video games===
{{lang|es|La Llorona}} appears as a collectible demon in ]'s '']'' series of role-playing games, making her first appearance in the 1997 installment, '']'' for the ].

===Comics===
{{lang|es|La Llorona}} is the name of a fictional punk band in the ] ] '']''. They are known for their song, 'Two Faces Have I', the title of which is generally misheard as 'Do Vases Have Eyes(?)'.


==See also== ==See also==
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* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
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* ]
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==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Perez, Domino Renee. (2008). ''There Was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture.'' Austin: U of Texas Press. {{ISBN|978-0292718128}}.
* Mathews, Holly F. 1992. The directive force of morality tales in a Mexican community. In ''Human motives and cultural models'', edited by R.G.D'Andrade and C. Strauss, 127–162. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* {{cite book|title=Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca|last=Norget|first=Kristin|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|year=2006|isbn=0-231-13688-9}}
* Ray John de Aragon, ''The Legend of La Llorona'', Sunstone Press, 2006. {{ISBN|9781466429796}}.
* Belinda Vasquez Garcia, ''The Witch Narratives Reincarnation'', Magic Prose Publishing, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-86534-505-8}}
* {{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture – Vol. 1|last=Werner|first=Michael S.|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|location=Chicago|year=1997|isbn=1-884964-31-1}}

{{American folklore}}
{{Authority control}}


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== External links ==
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* - La Llorona and related legends among ] in south ]
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* by the Last Chicano Artist, Jamie Longoria
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* Another movie based on the legend with a new spin.
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Latest revision as of 21:56, 12 December 2024

Vengeful ghost in Mexican folklore For other uses, see La Llorona (disambiguation).
Statue of La Llorona on an island of Xochimilco, Mexico, 2015

La Llorona (Latin American Spanish: [la ʝoˈɾona]; 'the Crying Woman, the Weeping Woman, the Wailer') is a vengeful ghost in Mexican folklore who is said to roam near bodies of water mourning her children whom she drowned in a jealous rage after discovering her husband was unfaithful to her. Whoever hears her crying either suffers misfortune or death and their life becomes unsuccessful in every field.

Origins

Known for being Malintzin in her original nomenclature, today, the lore of La Llorona is well known in Mexico and the southwestern United States.

The earliest documentation of La Llorona is traced back to 1550 in Mexico City . But there are theories about her story being connected to specific Aztec mythological creation stories. "The Hungry Woman" includes a wailing woman constantly crying for food, which has been compared to La Llorona's signature nocturnal wailing for her children. The motherly nature of La Llorona's tragedy has been compared to Cihuacoatl, an Aztec goddess deity of motherhood. Her seeking of children to keep for herself is significantly compared to Coatlicue, known as "Our Lady Mother" or Tonantzin (who's also comparable to the Virgen de Guadalupe, another significant mother figure in Mexican culture), also a monster that devours filth or sin. She was in rage so much that she drowned her children and then was so sad that she drowned herself and now is called the weeping woman.

The legend of La Llorona is traditionally told throughout Mexico, Central America and northern South America. La Llorona is sometimes conflated with La Malinche, the Nahua woman who served as Hernán Cortés' interpreter and also bore his son. La Malinche is considered both the mother of the modern Mexican people and a symbol of national treachery for her role in aiding the Spanish.

Stories of weeping female phantoms are common in the folklore of both Iberian and Amerindian cultures. Scholars have pointed out similarities between La Llorona and the Cihuacōātl of Aztec mythology, as well as Eve and Lilith of Hebrew mythology. Author Ben Radford's investigation into the legend of La Llorona, published in Mysterious New Mexico, found common elements of the story in the German folktale "Die Wei e Frau" dating from 1486. La Llorona also bears a resemblance to the ancient Greek tale of the demigoddess Lamia, in which Hera, Zeus' wife, learned of his affair with Lamia and killed all the children Lamia had with Zeus. Out of jealousy over the loss of her own children, Lamia kills other women's children.

The Florentine Codex is an important text that originated in late Mexico in 1519 , a quote from which is, "The sixth omen was that many times a woman would be heard going along weeping and shouting. She cried out loudly at night, saying, "Oh my children, we are about to go forever." Sometimes she said, "Oh my children, where am I to take you?"

While the roots of the La Llorona legend appear to be pre-Hispanic, the earliest published reference to the legend is a 19th-century sonnet by Mexican poet Manuel Carpio. The poem makes no reference to infanticide, rather La Llorona is identified as the ghost of a woman named Rosalia who was murdered by her husband.

Regional versions

The legend has a wide variety of details and versions. In a typical version of the legend, a beautiful woman named María marries a rich ranchero / conquistador to whom she bears two children. One day, María sees her husband with another woman and in a fit of blind rage, she drowns their children in a river, which she immediately regrets. Unable to save them and consumed by guilt, she drowns herself as well but is unable to enter the afterlife, forced to be in purgatory and roam this earth until she finds her children. In another version of the story, her children are illegitimate, and she drowns them so that their father cannot take them away to be raised by his new wife. Recurring themes in variations on the La Llorona myth include a white, wet dress, nocturnal wailing, and an association with water.

Mexico

The legend of La Llorona is deeply rooted in Mexican popular culture. Her story is told to children to encourage them not to wander off in the dark and near bodies of water such as rivers and lakes alone. Her spirit is often evoked in artwork, such as that of Alejandro Colunga. La Cihuacoatle, Leyenda de la Llorona is a yearly waterfront theatrical performance of the legend of La Llorona set in the canals of the Xochimilco borough of Mexico City, which was established in 1993 to coincide with the Day of the Dead. In 1930s the reference and representation of La Llorona is seen in the production of films. La Llorona is portrayed as a vengeful and evil monster in many films. The classic film La Venganza de la Llorona (1974) produced by Miguel M. Delgado is one of the many popular renditions of La Llorona.

In Chicano culture, the tale of La Llorona acts as a warning particularly for women on what is considered acceptable behavior within the culture. In Mexican culture La Llorona represents a vengeful lover who goes from a resentful wife to a monstrous mother who drowns her children after discovering her husband's infidelity. Chicana writers and artists redefined La Llorona based on embodied experience and the social and political pressures they faced. The rise of Chicana feminism and the Chicano movement encouraged Chicana writers and artists to reinvent their historical and cultural Mexican presence in the United States. La Llorona was rewritten as a strong woman who had been forced to accommodate to the colonizers ruling and had been punished for challenging traditional female roles. Chicanas related to the agony that La Llorona faced while being stripped of her identity by Spanish colonizers. La Llorona symbolizes the pain and grief and became a metaphorical representation of the challenges and struggles faced by marginalized groups.

Guatemala

According to the local legend, in Guatemala City lived a woman who had an affair with a lover. She became pregnant and gave birth to a child named Juan de la Cruz who she drowned so her husband would not know. The woman was condemned in the afterlife to search for her murdered son in every place where there is a pool of water. She does that by crying out for him—hence her moniker of the Wailing Woman (La Llorona). It is a popular scary legend that in one iteration or another has been told to generations of children. The terrifying cry of "Oh, my children!!" (¡Ay mis hijos!) is well known due to the story. Additionally, one peculiar detail is that when a person hears the cry from afar means that the ghost is nearby, but if the cry is heard nearby, it means the ghost is afar. Someone unlucky enough to face the specter is "won over" to the afterlife, never to be seen again.. The legend is deeply rooted in Antigua Guatemala, the former capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala (current Central America and southern state of Chiapas, Mexico)

Ecuador

Throughout Latin America, there are various versions of the folktale of La Llorona. The Ecuadorian version often features a woman known as either La Llorona de Los Ríos (The Crying Woman of the Rivers) or La Llorona de Los Andes (The Crying Woman of the Andes) depending on the region. In this story, she lost her lover and, in desperation, drowned her children in a river. She now cries uncontrollably and searches the riverbanks for her missing children. Many similarities exist between the traditional Mexican version of La Llorona, in which many people are familiar with. Nonetheless, one of its main focuses is the environment of Ecuadorian rivers and mountains. The Ecuadorian La Llorona is known for her connection to rivers, like the Guayas River, where locals say they can hear her somber cries at night. The tale of La Llorona warns kids about disobedience and the importance of avoiding bodies of water and locations at night, similar in other versions around the world.

United States

In the Southwestern United States, the story of La Llorona is told to scare children into good behavior, sometimes specifically to deter children from playing near dangerous water. Also told to them is that her cries are heard as she walks around the street or near bodies of water to scare children from wandering around, resembling the stories of El Cucuy. In Chumash mythology indigenous to Southern California, La Llorona is linked to the nunašɨš, a mythological creature with a cry similar to that of a newborn baby. It is a very popular story.

Venezuela

The tale of La Llorona is set in the Venezuelan Llanos during the colonial period. La Llorona is said to be the spirit of a woman that died of sorrow after her children were killed, either by herself or by her family. Families traditionally place wooden crosses above their doors to ward off such spirits.

Spain

The tales of La Llorona are seen differently in Spain, as detailed in Elvira, La Llorona published by Jose Maria Leon y Dominguez, a Jesuit academic from Cadiz. The tale begins with a woman named Elvira who experiences a devastating life which slowly led to her transformation into the spectral figure La Llorona.

Other mythologies

In Eastern Europe, the modern Rusalka is a type of water spirit in Slavic mythology. They come to be after a woman drowns due to suicide or murder, especially if they had an unwanted pregnancy. Then they must stay in this world for a period of time.

The Greek legend of Jason and Medea also features the motif of a woman who murders her children as an act of revenge against her husband, who has left her.

In popular culture

Film

Actress representing La Llorona in The Mexican Dream, 2003

The story of La Llorona first appeared on film in 1933's La Llorona, filmed in Mexico. René Cardona's 1960 film La Llorona was also shot in Mexico, as was the 1963 horror film The Curse of the Crying Woman, directed by Rafael Baledón.

In a pivotal scene in the 2001 film Mulholland Drive, Rebekah Del Rio plays La Llorona de Los Angeles, a mysterious singer who performs Llorando, a Spanish language version of Crying by Roy Orbison. In keeping with the legend, the characters who witness this performance suffer severe consequences.

The 2008 Mexican horror film Kilometer 31 is inspired by the legend of La Llorona. Additionally the early 2000s saw a spate of low-budget movies based on La Llorona, including:

  • The River: The Legend of La Llorona
  • Revenge of La Llorona
  • The Wailer: La Llorona
  • The Curse of La Llorona

La Llorona is the primary antagonist in the 2007 movie J-ok'el. In the 2011 Mexican animated film La Leyenda de la Llorona, she is portrayed as a more sympathetic character, whose children die in an accident rather than at their mother's hands.

In the 2017 Pixar film Coco, "La Llorona", the Mexican folk song popularized by Andres Henestrosa in 1941 is sung by Alanna Ubach in her role as Mamá Imelda, joined by Antonio Sol as the singing voice of Ernesto de la Cruz.

In July 2019, James Wan, Gary Dauberman and Emilie Gladstone produced a film titled The Curse of La Llorona for Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was directed by Michael Chaves and stars Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez and Marisol Ramirez as La Llorona.

Also in 2019, Jayro Bustamante directed the Guatemalan film La Llorona, starring María Mercedes Coroy, which screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

The Legend of La Llorona was a film released in January 2022 and stars Danny Trejo, Autumn Reeser, and Antonio Cupo.

Theater

Mexican playwright Josefina López wrote Unconquered Spirits, which uses the myth of La Llorona as a plot device. The play premiered at California State University, Northridge's Little Theatre in 1995.

Literature

Nancy Farmer's 2002 science fiction novel, The House of the Scorpion includes references to La Llorona.

The legend of La Llorona is discussed in Jaquira Díaz's 2019 memoir, Ordinary Girls:

The scariest part was not that La Llorona was a monster, or that she came when you called her name three times in the dark, or that she could come into your room at night and take you from your bed like she'd done with her own babies. It was that once she'd been a person, a woman, a mother. And then a moment, an instant, a split second later, she was a monster.

The novel Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, the first part of a young adult trilogy by Tehlor Kay Mejia, is based on the legend of La Llorona.

Rodolfo Anaya's novel Bless Me, Ultima references La Llorona, describing her as a spirit of the river without mentioning her origins.

"Advice from La Llorona" by Deborah A. Miranda is a poem exploring grief and loss.

In Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, she serves as a mentor to the Garza Sisters.

The Weeping Woman: Encounters with La Llorona by Edward Garcia Kraul and Judith Beatty, is a valuable resource that brings together of encounters and retellings of La Llorona with diverse perspectives and different regions.

Bess Lomax Hawes, an American folklorist, published his article in 1968, La Llorona in Juvenile Hall containing details of the hauntings in California's juvenile detention facility with sightings of a “weeping woman.”

Gloria Anzaldua's book Borderlands/La Frontera references La Llorona as one of the three mothers of Chicanas.

The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre: Further Readings on the Aesthetics of Disqualification, is a valuable resource that gives insight on international perspectives on "monster" figures in writing. Makes many references to La Llorona and explores La Llorona within Chicano culture.

Music

"La Llorona" is a Mexican folk song popularized by Andres Henestrosa in 1941. It has since been covered by various musicians, including Chavela Vargas, Joan Baez, Lila Downs, and Rosalía.

North American singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela's debut album La Llorona (1997) explored the dark mysteries of Latin folklore. She combined a variety of musical genres including klezmer, gypsy jazz and Mexican folk music, all in the Spanish language. The album was certified Platinum in Canada, and it earned her a Canadian Juno Award for Best Global Artist in 1998.

Manic Hispanic, a rock band from Los Angeles, California, have a song titled "She Turned Into Llorona" on their 2003 album Mijo Goes To Jr. College.

Television

La Llorona is an antagonist in the TV series Supernatural, portrayed by Sarah Shahi in the pilot episode and by Shanae Tomasevich in "Moriah" and season 15.

La Llorona is an antagonist in a 2012 second-season episode of the TV series Grimm.

La Llorona appears in the Victor and Valentino episode "The Lonely Haunts 3: La Llorona" voiced by Vanessa Marshall. Contrary to the usual depictions, this version of La Llorona is good and simply lonely and claims to have had twenty kids who had all grown up and left her; implying that she suffers from Empty nest syndrome.

La Llorona appears in the Craig of the Creek episode "The Legend of the Library" voiced by Carla Tassara. Craig and the Stump Kids visit their friend Stacks at the local library to get out of the rain. When the power goes out and their fellow Creek Kids begin disappearing, Stacks believes that La Llorona is to blame. In the end, it is revealed that the "ghost" was actually Lorraine, the substitute librarian who is very serious about her job. She makes the kids promise to take good care of the library along with a warning, showing a ghostly face at the same time. Whether or not Lorraine was in fact La Llorona or the face was imagined is left ambiguous.

La Llorona appears in the Riverdale episode "Chapter 97: Ghost Stories". The characters tell ghost stories about people related to them or the town that had died. La Llorona is one. She haunts Sweetwater River and she also manages to possess Toni and take Betty's unborn child away.

La Llorona is portrayed by drag queen, Mirage, during the 3rd episode of Season 16 of Rupaul's Drag Race. During this episode the queens had to show three different looks in the runway and she portrayed La Llorana in the second theme named "Significant Mother" where they needed to show an outfit based on a iconic mother.

Video games

La Llorona appears as a collectible demon in Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei series of role-playing games, making her first appearance in the 1997 installment, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers for the Sega Saturn.

Comics

La Llorona is the name of a fictional punk band in the alternative comic book Love and Rockets. They are known for their song, 'Two Faces Have I', the title of which is generally misheard as 'Do Vases Have Eyes(?)'.

See also

References

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  2. Leddy, Betty (1948). "La LLorona in Southern Arizona". Western Folklore. 7 (3): 272–277. doi:10.2307/1497551. hdl:10150/624782. JSTOR 1497551.
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Bibliography

  • Perez, Domino Renee. (2008). There Was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture. Austin: U of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0292718128.
  • Mathews, Holly F. 1992. The directive force of morality tales in a Mexican community. In Human motives and cultural models, edited by R.G.D'Andrade and C. Strauss, 127–162. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Norget, Kristin (2006). Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13688-9.
  • Ray John de Aragon, The Legend of La Llorona, Sunstone Press, 2006. ISBN 9781466429796.
  • Belinda Vasquez Garcia, The Witch Narratives Reincarnation, Magic Prose Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-0-86534-505-8
  • Werner, Michael S. (1997). Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture – Vol. 1. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-884964-31-1.
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