Mythical Creatures: Legend of La LLorna

Mythological Creature la llorona

Igrew up listening to tales of La Llorona. I now know there are many versions, but the one I grew up with on the frontier of Deep South Texas and Mexico went like this:

A woman was happily married and had two children, a son, and a daughter. Her husband died one day, and she was thrust into poverty. She met a new man, but he wanted nothing to do with her children. He told her if she sent them away to live with her in-laws, they could be together. They could have more children that were his.

Knowing her in-laws could not take the children she took them to the river and drowned them. The man disgusted by her actions abandoned her. Devastated that her sacrifice had been for not, she spent her life on the waters edge morning her children. If children got too close to her, she would mistake them for her own and drag them into the water.

After killing several children, she had mistaken as hers, she herself was drowned by vengeful parents. Ever since then it is said her ghost roams the water ways of South Texas and Mexico looking for her children and grabbing and drowning those who get too close to her. In most traditions, the ghost of La Llorona is to be feared. She is said to be vengeful and seize other’s children to drown in place of her own. By other traditions, she is a warning and those who hear her wails will soon face death themselves. Sometimes she is seen as a disciplinary figure and appears to children who are unkind to their parents.

One of the most popular versions, depicts a beautiful young Maria. Maria was poor and married a wealthy man and bore his children. They lived happily until he lost interest in her and began having an affair with a younger woman. One day while Maria and her children were walking by the river the husband rode by in his carriage accompanied by the new young woman.

In a fit of rage, Maria flung her two children into the river and drowned them both.

By: Lady Nephthys