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The legend of La Llorona, Spanish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of Hispanic culture in the Southwest since the days of the conquistadores. The tall, thin spirit is said to be blessed with natural beauty and long flowing black hair. Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and creeks, wailing into the night and searching for children to drag, screaming to a watery grave. ~New Mexico Magazine
I first heard about La Llorona quite a few years ago from my young students in a school south of Las Cruces. I've been wanting to collect stories about her for some time now for an article on my blog, and October seems to be the perfect time to do it.
So, how about it? Were you raised on these tales? Have you seen La Llorona, or do you know someone else who has told you a story about seeing her?
Thank you in advance for what I know will be some hair-raising stories!
I heard La Llorona for the first time in High School. Up to now, I always thought La Llorona was heard crying while her spirit was searching for her own children that she drowned herself.
The latest local monthly publication has a story of La Llorona (Lah yoh ROH nah)! It says the legend dates back to the Spanish conquistadores. One says she is a young thin woman that has long black hair, and wears a white gown. She roams the rivers at night wailing looking for children to drag into the water screaming to their death. Another says she drowned her own children because the man she loved wanted her but not her children. Now she walks the river bank eternally looking for her children. Another says her husband left her so she drowned their children in revenge and then killed herself.
When I lived in Az. I heard of this story. I thought this being a scary story when my boy friend and his cousin came running back from the drain ditch white as a ghost and I heard to what I can say of a woman wailing. This was back in 1975.
FWIW, the same story with the same variations is told in Panama where it is considered
a local fable. Since it is so universal, I think it must be a very ancient Mediterranean
tale brought to the Americas by the Spanish during colonization.
My husband and I were doing some fishing off the rio grande near radium springs one night when all of a sudden from a distance I hear what sounds like someone crying (scary, weeping sound) and it sounded like it was getting louder and closer. It made all the hairs on my body stands up and something told me not to turn around to look back. I kept on asked my husband if he hears that and what is it. He didn't reply, all he did was get his fishing rod out the water and cut his
favorite straps he loved from the tree that was holding the lantern and finally told me - get in the truck let's go! We were both scared talking about it in the truck something we have never heard before, there was nothing around us just the river and a lot of pecan trees, no houses so we believe we heard La Llorona. We do a lot of fishing/camping along the Rio grande from Las Cruces all the way to Rincon NM. We have also seen a Chupacabra but that's another story.
I grew up in New Mexico and heard tales of La Llorona from the time I started school. The story was that a woman was left destitute with her two children and had no way to take care of them so she drowned them in the river and then drowned herself. He gohst haunts the reiver and ditches looking for children to drown. I have heard that in Spain and south america, anywhere the spaniards colonized this story is told. I believe it is a tale like the boogie man, to keep kids away from waterways without suprevision. (the boogie man under the bed is to keep kids in bed during darkness. )
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