La Llorona, or “the weeping woman,” is a popular Mexican folklore legend that has been around since the conquistadores. The tall, thin spirit is said to be blessed and has historical and cultural significance. The legend is central to Mexican identity and lends itself to a feminist perspective due to its stereotypical yet enduring image.
La Llorona is a ghostly woman with long black hair and dressed all in white, wandering alone at night wailing for her lost children. She drowned her children when she found out her husband cheated on her. The Bride, the secondary antagonist of the 2019 horror film Annabelle Comes Home, is a violent ghostly spirit who possesses a wedding dress and uses it to control brides into killing their grooms.
The mother archetype of La Llorona has been tied to patriarchal expectations of women in Mexican culture by several authors, historians, and social critics. La Llorona is not only a reflection of our innermost fears but also serves as a living breathing proof that we can overcome them. Her narrative passed down for centuries is a reminder that our voices are being listened to and acknowledged, and La Llorona is understood more and more each and every day.
In the legend, La Llorona is often portrayed wearing a white gown with a veil, which is often worn by men on lonely roads in the night. According to their case file, the Bride was a ghost that possessed an elegant wedding dress after being purchased and worn by brides-to-be.
📹 The VERY Messed Up Origins™ of La Llorona | Folklore Explained – Jon Solo
▽ Timestamps ▽ » 0:00 – Intro » 2:02 – The Legend of La Llorona » 6:51 – La Llorona Explained ▻ Want more? » Messed Up …
Why do people get La Llorona tattoo?
Redemption and forgiveness. Some people get a La Llorona tattoo to show they have been forgiven. La Llorona’s story is about regret and sorrow, and her weeping symbolizes her desire for forgiveness. A La Llorona tattoo reminds you to forgive and make amends.
Feminine Power. La Llorona is a powerful figure in Mexican folklore. Her story symbolizes feminine power. Some wearers see a La Llorona tattoo as a way to show their strength and resilience as women.
Love and Devotion. La Llorona’s story is also about love and devotion. She loved her children. Some people get a La Llorona tattoo to honor love and the sacrifices it makes.
Is La Llorona wearing a wedding dress?
In the legend, La Llorona is often shown wearing a white gown with a veil. She appears by rivers or lakes at dusk and is often heard sobbing, hence her other name, “The Weeping Woman”.
Is La Llorona harmless?
In Latin America, in Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S., and especially in Mexico, the legend of La Llorona is told, discussed, and interpreted more than any other ghost story. “La Llorona” means “the weeping woman,” so all stories of “La Llorona” have her crying. The ghost known as La Llorona varies in many ways. Many stories are told about her appearance, actions, and origin. Sometimes she pursues you from a distance, terrifying you as you flee toward your home. Sometimes she rides a horse. Sometimes she appears in your horse-drawn wagon or car, warning you against bad behavior, before disappearing. Some stories say she is deadly. La Llorona is often linked to children. In some stories, she cries for her dead children. In many of these stories, she killed her children when she was alive. She is doomed to be a ghost. In other stories, she appears to women who have children. In some, she kidnaps children and never sees them again. Longer stories about La Llorona’s life, death, and return as a ghost are also common. These stories are passed down in oral tradition and are often included in children’s books and short novels. Rudolfo A. Anaya’s novel The Legend of La Llorona and Joe Hayes’s children’s book La Llorona are examples. The Weeping Woman and Anaya’s children’s book La Llorona. The Weeping Woman. Here’s a version from a friend of AFC:
What is the real story of La Llorona?
Venezuelaedit. 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.2728 Families traditionally place wooden crosses above their doors to ward off such spirits.28.
Other mythologiesedit. 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.29.
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 for another woman.
What does La Llorona symbolize in Mexican culture?
She wears white and steals children. Learn with us! La Llorona is a well-known legend in Latinx households. It’s a cautionary tale for kids, used to scare them and stop them from misbehaving. Some of the cast and crew of the 2019 horror movie The Curse of La Llorona thought the spirit of La Llorona—Spanish for The Weeping Woman—was around. They were spooked by cold chills, exploding jewelry, flickering lights, and screaming dreams. The director, Michael Chaves, told the Los Angeles Times that there were some creepy supernatural occurrences. “Half the crew thinks the house we shot in was haunted.” Actress Patricia Velasquez said, “I think she was there to make sure we were doing right by her.” In the film, the ghost is a mother from Mexico who drowned her sons. She now haunts the living with her crying. She wears white and looks for other children to steal.
What happens if you talk to La Llorona?
She searches forever for her lost children. She is always heard weeping for her children, earning her the name La Llorona. If you hear her crying, run the other way. If you hear her, it could bring bad luck. Many parents in Latin America use this story to scare their children from staying out late.
La Llorona kidnaps wandering children at night, thinking they are her own. She asks for forgiveness and drowns the children. People who say they’ve seen her say she appears at night or in the evening by rivers or lakes, wearing a white gown with a veil. Some think that if you hear La Llorona, you will die or have bad luck. This is like the Gaelic banshee legend. She is also known to cry, “Oh, my children!” or “Oh, my sons!” She also cries out, “Where are my sons?” She searches the rivers and lakes for her sons. When she cries, she is far away. When she is quiet, she is close. The legend of La Llorona is known throughout Latin America. La Llorona is sometimes seen as La Malinche, a Nahua woman who served as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and mistress. Some say she was betrayed by the Spanish conquistadors. In one story, La Malinche had a child with Cortés. He left her for a Spanish woman. No evidence exists that she killed her children. The story compares the Spanish discovery of the New World and the end of indigenous culture after the conquest with La Llorona’s loss.
How tall is La Llorona?
La Llorona Complexion: pale Height: 65 Hair color: black Eye color: black —Samedi: how he got the wraith under Pantheons control White Trash (by Samedi) Best Mom Material (by Jamie & Petunia) White Lady (by Sherman) Herself (formerly) Pantheon (unwillingly) Armadura (unwillingly, currently)
How do you know when La Llorona is near?
La Llorona kidnaps children at night, thinking they are her own. She asks for forgiveness and drowns the children. People who say they’ve seen her say she appears at night or in the evening by rivers or lakes, wearing a white gown with a veil. Some think that if you hear La Llorona, you will die or have bad luck. This is like the Gaelic banshee legend. She is also known to cry, “Oh, my children!” or “Oh, my sons!” She also cries out, “Where are my sons?” She searches the rivers and lakes for her sons. When she cries, she is far away. When she is quiet, she is close. The legend of La Llorona is known throughout Latin America. La Llorona is sometimes seen as La Malinche, a Nahua woman who served as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and mistress. Some say she was betrayed by the Spanish conquistadors. In one story, La Malinche had a child with Cortés. He left her for a Spanish woman. No evidence exists that she killed her children. The story compares the Spanish discovery of the New World and the end of indigenous culture after the conquest with La Llorona’s loss. Stories of crying female ghosts are common in European and American Indian cultures. Scholars have found similarities between La Llorona and the Cihuacōātl of Aztec mythology, as well as Eve and Lilith of Old World mythology. In his article in Mysterious New Mexico, Ben Radford traced parts of the story back to a German folktale from 1486. The first mention of La Llorona was in a poem by Mexican poet Manuel Carpio in the late 1800s. The poem doesn’t mention infanticide. La Llorona is the ghost of a woman who was killed by her husband.
What does La Llorona cry?
María, angry and hurt, took her children to a river and drowned them in a blind rage. She realised what she had done and searched for them, but the river had already carried them away. Days later, her husband came back and asked about the children, but Maria started weeping and said that she had drowned them. Her husband was furious and said that she could not be with him unless she found their children.
Now she spends eternity looking for her lost children. She is always heard weeping for her children, earning her the name La Llorona. It is said that if you hear her crying, you are to run the opposite way. If you hear her cries, they could bring misfortune or even death. Many parents in Latin America use this story to scare their children from staying out too late.
La Llorona kidnaps wandering children at night, mistaking them for her own. She begs the heavens for forgiveness, and drowns the children she kidnaps. People who claim to have seen her say she appears at night or in the late evening by rivers or lakes, wearing a white gown with a veil. Some believe those who hear the wails of La Llorona are marked for death or misfortune, similar to the Gaelic banshee legend. Among her wails, she is noted as crying ¡Ay, mis hijos! which translates to Oh, my children! or Oh, my sons! It is also said she cries out ¿Dónde están mis hijos? which translates into Where are my sons? She scrapes the bottom of the rivers and lakes, searching for her sons. It is said that when her wails sound near she is actually far and when she sounds distant, she is actually very near.
The legend of La Llorona is traditionally known throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Central and South America. La Llorona is also sometimes identified with La Malinche, the Nahua woman who served as Hernán Cortéss interpreter and mistress who bore his children and who some say was betrayed by the Spanish conquistadors. In one story, La Malinche was Cortés’s mistress and gave him a child. He then married a Spanish woman. There is no proof that La Malinche killed her children. The story compares the Spanish discovery of the New World and the loss of indigenous culture after the conquest with La Llorona’s loss.
Where did Llorona drown her kids?
La Llorona has long hair and cries. The counselors at Juvie said she drowned two kids because they were bad. She drowned them in Tijuana. She attacks bad kids in Juvie. They say it’s true.
A woman who wasn’t right in the head killed her three girls, aged 13 to 17. She didn’t want them because her husband died, and they reminded her of him, so she drowned them. Her bones are buried in her back. She doesn’t know they’re dead. She wears a black cape with a hood and looks for her kids in institutions and foster homes. If she sees a girl who looks like one of her daughters, she tries to cut off that feature. She comes around three days after it rains. Stories like those in Hawess’s collection are not full narratives. They describe what La Llorona does and looks like, with brief passages about her origin. This text is worth including because it describes La Llorona’s activities, it has been influential, and it is available online from the Library of Congress. It was published in 1906 in Harpers Magazine and reprinted in many newspapers, including the Washington, D.C. Evening Star on November 29, 1906. I’ll reprint the text below.
What to do if you see La Llorona?
She searches forever for her lost children. She is always heard weeping for her children, earning her the name La Llorona. If you hear her crying, run the other way. If you hear her, it could bring bad luck. Many parents in Latin America use this story to scare their children from staying out late.
La Llorona kidnaps wandering children at night, thinking they are her own. She asks for forgiveness and drowns the children. People who say they’ve seen her say she appears at night or in the evening by rivers or lakes, wearing a white gown with a veil. Some think that if you hear La Llorona, you will die or have bad luck. This is like the Gaelic banshee legend. She is also known to cry, “Oh, my children!” or “Oh, my sons!” She also cries out, “Where are my sons?” She searches the rivers and lakes for her sons. When she cries, she is far away. When she is quiet, she is close. The legend of La Llorona is known throughout Latin America. La Llorona is sometimes seen as La Malinche, a Nahua woman who served as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and mistress. Some say she was betrayed by the Spanish conquistadors. In one story, La Malinche had a child with Cortés. He left her for a Spanish woman. No evidence exists that she killed her children. The story compares the Spanish discovery of the New World and the end of indigenous culture after the conquest with La Llorona’s loss.
What gender is La Llorona?
La Llorona is a ghost from Mexico and other Latin American countries. In some versions, she’s a ghost. In others, she’s an immortal wanderer. In all versions, she cries loudly at night. So far in the series, we’ve talked about the legend, its history, songs related to La Llorona, and its role in growing up. Now, we tell the story.
Below, you’ll find a performance by Joe Hayes, a well-known storyteller from the American Southwest. Hayes is one of America’s top bilingual Spanish-English storytellers. He has published over 40 books and won many awards. He was named a New Mexico Eminent Scholar and received a New Mexico Governors Award. Hayes grew up in a small town in southern Arizona, where he learned Spanish from his Mexican neighbors. He learned the story of La Llorona in Spanish from a friend’s grandmother when he was a child. He wrote a bilingual children’s book about La Llorona, which won an award in 2005. Hayes has performed at the National Storytelling Festival many times. He also appeared at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in 2011. Watch the video here.
📹 The Conjuring: The History of La Llorona | Horror History
The “Weeping Woman” has her roots in Mexican and Central American legend and her very own place in The Conjurverse.
Thanks for perusal, Solo Cups! Hope you liked this EXTRA spoopy episode of Messed Up Origins! 😀 One point that I do want to clarify is that the folkSONG discussed at the end and the folkTALE have no ~verified~ connection. As far as we know they have nothing to do with each other. HOWEVER, some folks like to have fun and theorize about them being related (I’m one of these people).
I’m from Mexico and, when the coronavirus thing started here, there was a place (I don’t remember where exactly) where people began to walk the streets in their vehicles with an audio recording of La Llorona at full volume, to scare the children who did not obey about being quarantined so they will stay at home 😂
One of my tios en mexico, told me that one time he was young, he was walking home with a friend, along a dirt road (there are lot of dirt road in smaller communities in mexico). Not alot of light around those areas. When they heard a faint cry-ish moan, at first my tio didn’t think much of it. But as time went by he couldn’t ignore it. He told me it sounded a like woman in pain as if she was heartbroken or devastated, but when he heard “ay mis hijos”. He told his friend to run. They had to run up a hill to get to my grandparent’s house. Back to the streets where lights were on and few people were still walking the streets too. But when they reach the top of the hill my uncle, swears to god, he saw a “woman in white dress” standing between the shadow of tree and the bit of moonlight. They ran straight home and the friend crash at the place for the night. Its there when he and many of my relatives told me, you are safe when you hear her closeby because she is faraway from you, than when you hear her faraway, IT MEANS SHES CLOSEBY.
the original story of “La Llorona” is of aztec origin my grandmother used to tell me it when i was little in her pueblo in mexico It started with a lady that could predict the future and one day she saw a huge murder scene from smoke that came out of several plants that she would burn then she went out crying “Piltsintli” (my children in aztec) and everyone knew her and knew that she did not have children so then went up to her and told her what children, relax and then she explaind “i saw a vision and you my children will be murdered by monsters with 2 heads, 2 arms and 6 legs all of you my children and your children and your childrens children will die soon” the lady predicted the conquistadores going to mexico and murdering the aztec’s people
La Llorona’s backstory is very tragic. She married a rich man, had two children but because she grew older and unattractive her husband did not visit her anymore. Soon after she found out he was cheating on her. In rage, she then threw her children to a nearby river and they drowned. After she realised, she jumped into the river and died as well. I think why she targets children because she still loves them and wants to find her children and regretted what she had done.
I remember when I first heard this story, I thought, wouldn’t it have been so much creepier if the children were the ones responsible for all the deaths. Maybe they were turned evil, or replaced by evil being or spirits, and their mother suddenly one day couldn’t recognize her children, and she was the only one who saw them differently. Their doting father, not being able to take it anymore, turns to the warm embrace of another woman, leaving his former wife with the kids that she’s oh so wary off. Then one day, when they’ve grown enough, and bored with seeing the mother struggle, they decide to kill her. And that’s why she’s stuck on this plane. The confusion, regret and hurt, tying her to this world, in a neverending effort to warn people of her ‘kids’, who feed on young children. Her cries being a warning, not a threat, forever lamenting the evil she put in this world, forever cursed to watch their horrible deeds and being misunderstood in her intent to help others not befall the same fate. It’s fun making up little alternate stories :p
I never clicked as fast as I did when this popped up. Just like a lot of Mexican kids, I grew up listening to la Llorona’s story, so this gave me a lot of nostalgia. Thank you so much for breaking down this story❤ Keep up the great work. (There are other white ladies in Mexican folklore. For example, El Soldado y la Fantasma, The Soldier and the Ghost) Also, other Latin American countries have different ghost ladies, i.e. La Sucia from Honduras.
As a mexican, I enjoy this article a lot. I didnt knew how he was going to connect this one to coco. Pretty cool research, made me want to look more into La llorona. Fun fact, every town in Mexico is going to tell you, La Llorona was native from their town and they’re going to have their own version of the story. Plus I loved how he said “LALLORONA” he rlly nail it in pronunciation, thumbs up
As a Mexican my grandmother told me this story and I usually sleep in my own bed (i was 5) i swear to god i could hear a women screaming and crying MIS NIÑOS which is MY KIDS in Spanish and i had to sleep with my grandmother for 1week then when i came back to my parents house i was scared and i told my mom that could i sleep with a cross and i find my self still bursting laughing telling this
My mom told me that when she was 20 her dad died from old age, he had a truck and all they did was leave it in the drive way since they cant do anything with it, it had been there for a year so the wheels literally stuck on to the ground. Eventually at 3 or 4 in the morning my mom told me that she woke up to horribly loud screams that sounded like it was from a woman, her dads truck turned of and crashed into something which was no where near as loud as the screams she was really scared. Then the screams stopped and she told me thats when she started believing in god because she said “if there is bad, then there should be good.” Because as a kid her teacher kept telling her god didnt exist eventually she believed until that day.
I just started this and had to pause to take a minute bc I just love the pronunciation difference from the first time he said “la llorona” in the beginning of the article, then at 1:12 At first I was like “cant blame him” but then I was like “oooooooooooooooooooooof baby” I fell in LOVE!!! Hella heart eyes lol love you Jon!! Definitely had this engraved into my psyche from childhood, glad to see you did a article on it!! keep up the great work!!
My uncle told me his story of when he and his friends heard the wailing along the little river by my moms childhood home in Mexico. After a late night they were walking home from a baile (dance) They heard it from a long distance getting closer. They started running towards my great aunts house since it was the closest. She was standing by the door as she had heard the wailing too. My uncle and his friends ran into her house until the sun came up. My great aunt lived right by the little river for years and it wasn’t her first time hearing it…and that’s just ONE count in our family 😭😭 I hate it so much 🤣
One thing to mention, in Mexico there are two versions of who La Llorona real name was but most Mexicans hear the name Maria, but people of Aztec descent were told that La Loronas name which is very close to the first name but the other name is is Dona Marina the mistress and interpreter for Hernan Cortes. Because my mother is Aztec and my father is Mexican I was taught both versions. The compression came because both men left their spouses for another woman, and after Cortes left Marina it is rumored that she killed her only child she had with Cortes, and replaced the child by stealing a child from another family to cover it up. It is also mentioned that when Marina died and the Spaniards (her colony) dressed her up in white as a sign of thanks for helping them defeat the Aztec Empire and people believe that she met with her gods and they punished her to stay on earth for helping the Spaniards, killing her child, and kidnapping a child to replace her dead child. She was punished as a ghost to find the reincarnated soul of her son and another child which most people believe the other soul they wanted was from the child she kidnapped.
the ending version i was told as a kid was that he left and never came back so out of envy(of the love he had for their kids) and heartbreak she drowned her kids and once she realized what she did she starts yelling at the river “aye mis hijos” LOL so becuz of her distraught we werent allowed to play at night in the dark, cuz if not she would mistake us as her own child and drown us just like her kids
I’ve never heard my cousin tell me that there parents would tell them the llorona would get them, I think they always tell them that a dog or the rats would come and eat them. also this legend is Mexican I hear this a lot from encounters from my grandpas and I I heard once when I went to visit family in Mexico and not the city, you hear this in the pueblo.
When I lived in San Antonio there was a lil boy that lived on our street and his grandmotha neva let him play outside at night half-hour before the street lights came on he had to go inside because of La Llorona and El Cucuy. One night there were two Barred Owls on a tree and his grandmotha went bat shit insane screaming saying it was a Lechuza and it was a bruja. I felt so bad for the kid and her as well she was very terrified she took her folklore very serious.
Here’s the kid friendly version they taught me in school instead of her drowning her own kids she actually put them in a boat one night when her house caught fire but when she came back the children and the boat were gone without a trace.This is a lot more tragic than scary and I personally prefer other versions of the story
I was actually told that the story is of northern New Mexican origin, primarily to warn kids to stay away from the arroyos (ditches). Now, in New Mexico, the arroyos aren’t just your common roadside ditches that you might find in other parts of the country. No, the arroyos are large irrigation canals that are used to help divert water in a flash flood (much shallower ditches are called acequias). And they can go from being dry one minute (actually most of the time) to suddenly being filled with several feet of water moving very quickly. And the thing is, the storm could be miles upstream, with the sky overhead where one is currently standing being completely clear and sunny. The thought is that Maria was an actual woman whose kids drowned in such manner, with her drowning soon after trying to save them. And so it’s said that nowadays, the tears of La Llorona will sometimes drown children that play in arroyos (the rushing waters that occur suddenly in arroyos are called the “tears of La Llorona). Of course, it was sensationalized over time and spread throughout New Spain (what’s now most of Latin America and the American Southwest). But it wasn’t written down until recently, because of low literacy rates.
I remember my mom telling me that when she was about 8 or 9 she heard crying near a river and when she went to investigate, she saw a woman dressed in white inside of the river searching for something, she felt uncomfortable for some reason so she ran back home and she said that she could have heard footsteps behind her
As a kid, my family and I lived by a large canal. There was farm land all around us, with the exception of a small plot filled with brush and trees, the foundation of a house, and an old well. One summer night my older brothers took me with them to walk along the canal, telling stories of La Llorrona. We walked until we reached the old well. They said at night you could hear the crying of the kids coming from the well. When I leaned in to listen, my brothers said they had to pee and walk off. Minutes went buy, and I began to panic and ran through the brush, across a field, until I got home where my a-hole brothers were waiting for me. I was so freaked out for the next few months that my parents took me to a curandera.
0:49 I don’t know if anyone’s heard this version –>, when I was younger my aunt told me,,She weeps by the lake, looking for her children, and when she see kids that look like hers, she’ll take them and kill them too” I also heard about,,if you hear her cries, you’re next” that was from someplace else.
This reminds me of going on a tour of the Queen Mary in Long beach, California, when I was a kid. Back then it was one big tour of the ship talking about stuff like how it was built, the famous people that sailed on it, and, of course, all the ghosts that were said to be haunting it. This was back in the 80s before they started doing all of those terrible special effects they do today. I remember the tour guide showing us parts of the ship that were off-limits to everybody else. They showed us stuff like where one person died getting caught in between a watertight door where you can still hear his ghostly screams and knocking on the watertight door, the haunted swimming pool where ghostly people can be seen and a child supposedly Wanderers the area, they showed us another area that was said to be the doorway between our realm and the supernatural, but the one thing the that stood out the most, was the story of the lady in white. If I remember correctly, she was a first-class woman who tragically died can be seen wandering the halls or dancing in a dark corner where a piano used to be in the Queen’s salon that used to be the first class’s main lounge. Fortunately, she’s not like La Llorona. All the spirits on the ship are said to be docile and stuck in their loops. I love visiting the Queen Mary.
This is exciting to me because I was completely into Urban Legends when I was a kid. My mother is from Belize and when I went to visit relatives I bought a book about Belizian characters and La Lorona was one of them. I didn’t know how to say her name so I called her “The Belizean Susan Smith” because she drowned her children. I was and still am fascinated by Central American myths.
I was first introduced to the legend of La Llarona back in the mid 80’s while listening to a public radio show (WEPR 90.1, with studios at Clemson University) called The Latin Beat, which explored music from Mexico all the way to Argentina. I think it was the very first episode that ended with the Ballad of the Weeping Woman (La Llarona). The singer was a man, and it was soulful and sad in tenor, it made an impression on me, as it was a very beautiful tune. The way he pronounced Llarona was unusual, I later thought, because it sounded like “zha-ro-na.” A variant Mexican accent, I suppose. I loved the song at first hearing.
Was one story I heard where a rich man married the beautiful woman Maria and had his kids but he kept cheating on her by going on trips when he came back. He would only treat his kids good vs her. So she got angry when Maria saw the beautiful rich woman that the rich man father will be happy. She took her children to river and thrown in the water in rage then crying from pain she killed so she killed herself.
I’m Latina and grew up with la Llorona but I thought everybody knew about her. I saw one of la Llorona that is like she was a really nice girl and everybody liked her and she has two kids, one day she and her kids were in a boat and she sees her house on fire. She is so focused on putting the fire down that she doesn’t realize her kids are no longer at the shore and that they wonder in the river. The whole town gathers and helps her find her kids but when they found them, the kids where dead. Then La Llorona (I don’t remember what was her name) cried and said. “Ay, mis hijos” (“Oh, my children”). She died soon after of depression because she couldn’t accept her children were dead. It said she take children thinking they are hers and when she realizes they aren’t her children she kills them. Thas how an animated movie called la Llorona tells it.
I am half and half (my dad is Mexican, my mom is mixed) and she claimed to hear the cries of La Llorona when she visited my dad’s home town in Chihuahua while pregnant with me. My abuela also heard them, claimed my mom and backed up by my dad, who then burnt sage through the house. This and the hoot owl are some of the childhood stories I learned.
There are many versions from a lot of different ages, from the aztec times, to the Malinche, but the one I know the most was during the Colony. “A widow who fell madly in love with a man, he was actually very nice and the woman too nive so she believed the man was also in love with her, she wanted to marry him but he didn’t want to, since she had two children and we are talking about other times, marry a woman with children might ruin a man’s reputation, so despeate for love she drown both of her children, prays all night so NOBODY EVER find their bodies so none could know what she did and have a happy life with her loved one, got into a wedding dress to marry the man just to realize he didn’t wanted to marry her because he was already engaged with another woman and very happy with her, he was just nice overall. Realizing her mistake she runs to the same river looking for her children, as the words “so NOBODY EVER finds them” echoes, she swears she won’t rest until she finds them and accidently drowns thanks to the dress. So she can’t rest and will never find her children, wearing that white dress wich sealed her eternity crying for her mistake, walking at the sours of all body waters, looking for what can never be found.”
The way you pronounce “Lamia” is used for the town Lamia (Greece). For the mythical creature Lamia you need to put the emphasis on the first syllable. Also, (I’ve been bingewatching) Moirae sounds like “mire” (ancient greek, plural) or “mires” (modern greek, plural), emphasis on the first syllable again. For the record, I don’t care how you pronounce words, you’re doing a great job here!
I saw that one coming (Balete Drive) as someone from the Philippines, I have something to add. There’s a way to avoid the white lady in Balete (ba-le-te) Drive. All you have to do is occupy all the seats in the car in whatever way possible like if you’re in the backseat, you should lie down for a bit. and don’t stop driving when you’re on that road. She won’t ask for a seat if you don’t have vacancy. The White Lady in Balete Drive is commonly seen by taxi/cab drivers and she usually takes the backseat.
here, in Yucatàn, we have another “white Woman” tale about the X’tabay, a sucubus-like ghost that lure young or drunk men to their doom. she appears as a beautiful indigenous woman whit a white dress and very long black hair sitting under a tree, the tree is a seiba, which has spines through its surfice; she calls upon the men who pass by alone in the night and ask them to kiss her, sometimes they get hurt for the spines of the tree or they get a hole in their chest after she ripped their hearts out to eat it.
In the small German town I live in, we have our own local “white lady” story that’s quite similar: In the beautiful castle above our town lived a noble lady who had become a widow at a very young age, remaining alone with two little children. She fell in love with a nobleman and wanted to marry him, but he wrote her that “four eyes” were between him and a marriage with her. He was referring to his parents, who wouldn’t give their consent, but she thought he meant her children, so she killed them secredly at night stabbing a needle into their heads. The murder was discovered, though, and the man she loved was shocked and, of course, marriage was off the table for good. Consumed with repentance she entered a convent and it is said that after her death she appeared as a ghost many times in her home castle and other castles of her family.
The prehispanic antecedent is in the called “fatal omens” wich is a compilation of strange happenings that started before the spanish arrival into Tenochtitlan (the capital city of “Aztec” civilization). One of them is the sighting of one of the motherly goddesses crying for her children (I guess the entire civilization about to be massacred) through the streets of Tenochtitlan. Also, in other versions “Maria” has indigenous and Spanish blood, and the man was Spanish so he didn’t marry her, just had children with her and when she found out he married a Spanish lady she went crazy and etc
The version I was thought was that she was so poor that she didn’t have anything to eat, so to end their suffering she drowned her children and commits suicide out of guilt. It is said that she is now weeping close to rivers in search of her children because of her guilt but mistakes other kids as to being hers and is taking them to depths of the river, as a result of drowning them as well.
i remember my aunt used to tell me & my cousins that la llorona was chained to a tree in her backyard but she’d only appear at night (she told us this so we wouldn’t try to play outside at night bc she didn’t live in the uhhh… safest.. neighborhood..) and we believed her bc we thought mating cats that would scream in the field next to her house was la llorona 😐😐
I’m Mexican and I never found out about it but when I read it in high school in my Spanish class and perusal a cartoon version kinda making fun at but it had a happy ending. Then I ask my mom and that’s when she told me more about it. Now when i hear or see the title I get very interested, scared and amazed. I also saw CoCo.
There was a more old version of the story. Once I heard that in the streets of Tenochtitlán, the Mexica city, people would heard and see a goddess crying, saying ”Oh my children, how will they escape their horrible destiny?”, some people say it was a reference of the genocide that will occur with the arriving of the spaniards. I’ve heard that she was Coatlicue, the mother of the 4 Tezcatlipocas
Come to think of it, the movie The Others is an obvious take on this. Just sad the stupid b got to keep her kids instead of having their father take them to heaven. Also why did Pixar chose this song for a kids movie? It serves no link to the plot unless you go by the theory on Llarona’s husband being a musician.
Ay senor sexy Jon! Man you nailed this one. As a kid that grew up in Mexico, you told every possible angle I could have heard. I came in thinking I was going to get a whitewashed version of it but nope, you definitely did your homework. As for the “white ladies”, where I come from they’re called “Animas”. They often show up in crossroads or riverside so that makes sense, but I never made that connection. Keep up the good work bud!
In my home town there is a long road that goes up and down sand hills and leads to a sharp turn with the view to the right blocked by a line of trees. To the left there is no railing and a large canal. Very few drive down that road at night as several people have died along that road because it is said that at night (no lights so very dark, small town just fields) a woman in a white gown or as the people of our town called her la Llorona is seen standing in the middle of the road leading people to veer out of the way, with the car driving into the canal leading to drownings. There are those who have chosen not to veer and claim that when they look in the rear view they could see her in the rear view mirror, when you look back she isn’t there. There are other grown ass adults who don’t drive that road at night. It’s a small town in the lower part of California, for reference from my grandmas house you step out and you can see the border wall to Mexico there. IF it’s true i believe they only call her la Llorona because of the link to the drownings and bc most of the residents in my home town are Mexican.
My grandfather was from a central american country and he used to tell me and my siblings a lot of ghost stories, some of them I think fall in the cathegory of the white ladies, he told ud about la Llorona, La sucia and La siguanaba, and other stories like “el charro negro” El cadejo El duende, I wish I had payed more attention to them, know that I’m older I found them rather interesting
I seriously am starting to see how similar the legend is to mama emelda’s story with hector. she fell in love with him and he and hermando both had a talent for music and playing the guitar, he left her and never returned, and she was motivated by her anger, obviously Pixar didn’t include any mention of killing children or adulterous husbands but I think we can see the parallels. I also realize why they mentioned la llorona in the song to expand the inspiration.
Us Welsh have a similar story but the woman’s name is Y Ladi Wen (English: The White Lady) or Y Ddynes Mewn Gwyn (English: The Woman in White), is an apparition of Welsh mythology, dressed in white, and is most commonly seen at Hollantide and the festival of Calan Gaeaf. Known in Welsh oral tradition, she is evoked to warn children about bad behaviour. Y Ladi Wen is characterized in various ways including being a terrifying ghost who may ask for help if you speak to her, or she may offer treasure or gold. Y Ladi Wen is commonly connected with the villages of Ogmore, Ewenny (where she gives her name to White Lady’s Meadow and White Lady’s Lane)
La Llorona has its roots in Mexico at the time that the Spanish came. It was common for Spanish conquistadors to marry local women (Aztec, Nahua) and have kids with them, however many Spanish men discarded them when Spanish women came and replaced their native wives, as many of these Spanish women were of high social standing. Many Nahuatl speaking women of the time were in the same position as la Llorona, and it is even said that Malinche (Malintzin) lived this experience with Hernan Cortez. Also, it’s a common story that has unfortunately happened to many people, regardless of when and where it took place!
I always thought that the legend originated from someone making a paralel and “mexicanization” with Medea from ancient greece. But Lamia seems also very close. When I was going to the town of my mom. She told me the story. At night. And called her la mujer de blanco. I remember when I was little my blood frozed, so scary heh.
There’s a local legend in Brazil about a girl called “Loira do banheiro” the tale had a lot of varieties, but where I grew up, she was a teenager who was being forced to get married with an old and abusive man. On her wedding day, she ran away and seek refuge on her school, but soon the staff told the man where she was. So she locked herself in the school’s bathroom and cut her wrists. Legend says she haunts the school bathrooms and if you flush the toilet three times, hit the toilet lid three times and go to the mirrors and call for the “loira do banheiro” also three times a blond girl, wearing a wedding gown, covered in blood will appear where your reflection once was, that will be the last thing you’ll see.
The story I’m familiar with is the one of the Spanish conquistadors. It is said that Hernán Cortes fell in love with a woman named Malinche. Malinche bore Cortes children, but Cortes was with another woman. She decided to drown her children in a river next/near the village. She regretted it so much that she killed herself and became la llorona. Like many others I have heard this story before as a child. It was terrifying to hear especially at night.
There’s a form of the tale we have as native Mexicans but this might just be my family, that la Llorona was Tonazin (our mother earth) and she was crying for her children (the indigenous of the Americas) because of the Spanish that were coming to take them away via murder and all the gruesome things that happened when they came
She won’t always go after you if you hear her, or even see her, when my cousin Bruce was younger he claims to have seen her at the end of the road and quickly goes inside his house, when my uncle(not his dad) was coming back home late from working the fields he sees someone crying near a river when he steps out and is headed towards her he hears “AYYY MIS HIJOS” he quickly and as quietly as he could he gets back to the truck and drives away full speed, in my case i was at my grandparents house and i couldn’t sleep, i had the window open and then as i was playing games on my phones i hear the cry and i do not sleep that night
I am white and speak no Spanish, but live in a Hispanic neighborhood that LOVES Halloween. I also love to sew. For Halloween a few years back I did ‘The Beating Bride’ from Disney’s Haunted Mansion…my husband programmed red lights to flash in the bust of the wedding gown I wore to look like a heartbeat. When we went trick or treating, everywhere we went our neighbors were whispering ‘La Llorona’ and freaking out, kids were crying, etc. It was both a huge hit and apparently nightmare inducing, and I was baffled. We finally texted a Mexican friend of ours asking for an explanation. Which of course, the article provides. SO THAT WAS FUN 🤣🤣🤣
I have family members that say they have heard her cries. And they used to tell me that if I ever heard her cry that I must run home and not look back because if you look at her then she could find you. I have also heard the legend of a kid who actually survived after being grabbed by la llorona and his shirt having finger prints of la llorona in blood.
Hi, I’m from Mexico and I am here to say that “La Llorona” story dates back to old times when “La Conquista de Mexico” was taking place, the Aztecs (At that time they were known as the Mexicas) heard the cry of a woman who was suspected to be the goddess Coatlicue if I am not mistaken, she was weeping the loss of her children from the upcoming wat as you know, The Aztecs were brutally killed by the diseases and the war against the Spanish people, Post-war it was said it was the ghost of Hernan Cortes’ Mistress “La Malinche” at the normal story, the infidelity, her drowning the kids, etc… At least that’s what I know living near Xochimilco Other fun fact about Mexican society is that at that time, Mexico was strictly divided by races, for this story we only need to know the main, “Los indigenas” (The natives from Mexico, probably the status where “Maria” was from) and it has been debated if the guy from the story was a “Peninsular” (Born on Spain and traveled to Mexico) or if he was a “Criollo” (Pronounce(Kree- Oh- Yoh) A Spanish person born in Mexico). Yup, old Mexico was REALLY racist.
My dad claims that when he lived in Mexico he was walking around at like 1 am with his uncle and they heard la llorona’s cries and ran away as quickly as possible. Also the tale I’ve heard from my parents is the one where she drowns her children. The villagers hear her cries and asked what happens. They try and find their bodies but can’t. She’s filled with remorse and kills herself but is anger with the villagers for not finding her children. They say her soul can’t be at rest until she finds their bodies but goes up river instead of down river trying to find them. They say her cries are only heard by the brave. And also she is anger with the people so that’s why she tries killing anyone she sees.
Well, no, la llorona of the song and la llorona that drowned her kids are not the same lady. The one from the song was actually a real story that happened during Mexico’s independence war or our revolution war (can’t remember exactly when). She was a guy’s fiance or wife (again, cant remember the details that well) and he went off to fight the war. When they said god bye he teasingly called her llorona (which, while it literally translates to English as “weaping lady” and that works just fine for the ghostly cattegry, we use it to mean something closer to cry-baby) and promised to come back to her. However, as you probably guessed, he didn’t make it back from the war, but he did manage to write a very, very lengthy poem to her (in which he lovingly calls her cry-baby multiple times as a memento of their last interaction) that was delivered to her by someone else in the army along with the news of his fall in battle. This llorona’s story is not a horror one, but a tragic love story. She did not turn into a ghost or anything, it just so happened
“…but I think it’s so interesting how many different cultures around the world have come up with similar myths and archetypes. It says a lot about human nature and how, deep down, we all have a lot in common, despite what some people would like to think.” ‘Don’t wander off or talk back, young children, or else some horrendous made-up spirit will snatch you up and murder you in your sleep!!!’ Yeah…. It says A LOT about how insane and depraved that most parents have been collectively for a LOOOONG time! I thought it was a recent development, but it seems that they’d rather terrify their young into many sleepless nights than pay attention or…. I dunno…. be good, responsible parents? Gotta shift the blame somewhere, I guess…. I’m not saying being a parent is easy, but I’d rather lop off a rather crucial body part than subject my own children to such insane nonsense…. Someone had to make these stories up, and DSS would have likely snatched up their children FAAAAR before they had to resort to these insane, bloodcurdling tales to do their jobs for them. Moral of the story: Be a GOOD parent, and don’t resort to telling fucked up stories to terrify your children to overcompensate for your own lack of caring and attention. Your children will probably grow up to hate you and do drugs and live with you until they’re 40 WITHOUT the shitty, insane stories to fuck them up even more than you have already! Man…. You gotta be one SHITTY parent to invent or spread a story like the one explained here….
As Mexican will review, it is a story that all relates in the fact that a woman losses her children and of guilt dies. Some people i know say that they have heard her. One friend of mine has a father who is actually Spain dependent, has a father that works in the Mexican military and well her grandma response was “probably it is because of your dad coming”. When they went to the town, she as a kid heard a lady crying at night saying that popular frace “ay mis hijos”. She freaked out and did continue to listen to that when visiting again later on as a teen. It is someone all kids fear. And the vegetable thing is a lie btw, provs a mom invented that to make her kid eat. It is more like people fear leaving their child alone, at night, and normally kids also fear it.
I’ve heard these before but in Guadalajara, they said she had children from a previous marriage. Her husband had died in a war leaving her alone with them. Years later, she meets a wealthy seller and falls in love. They soon decided to get married but he didn’t want to be seen with someone who already had children since it was frowned upon. She said she would give them away but decided to drown them in a river on their wedding day. When she walked back up to the road, she saw him with another woman. She fell to the floor crying until she realized what she did and went back to the river. The current had already taken the children down and she went in looking for them, where she drowned herself. Now she spends her time in the afterlife in different rivers and lakes looking for them. When she thinks she found them and it’s not her children, she drowns them out of spite and anger.
At 8:09 pronounced BA-LE-TE. Haunting legend In the past, the street was lined with large balete trees that darkened the area considerably and made it appear “frightening” to some Manila residents. In Pinoy folklore, balete trees are believed to be a “home for spirits and mysterious creatures”. Various legends and folklore have circulated since the 1950s that the street was haunted. Most of the legends describe a kaperosa (white lady) ghost, a popular character in the Philippine folklore, who is supposedly haunting taxi drivers “for eternity”. According to legend, the ghost is a teenage girl who was run over and killed by a taxi driver at night, then buried around a Balete tree in Balete Drive. One variation of the legend claims a student at the University of the Philippines was sexually assaulted and killed by a taxi driver, and her spirit roams the street looking for her murderer. Another version of the story claims that a female resident of one of the ancestral mansions lining Balete Drive was abused and killed by her own family, and her spirit haunts the road, seeking help from passing drivers. According to local rumor, the legend of Balete Drive was “fabricated by a reporter in 1953 in order to come up with an interesting story”. In 2005, a Quezon City barangay official proposed that the city could use the legends to boost tourism by declaring the street “haunted” and making it available for Halloween parties.
The version i was told growing up is pretty much the same except she drowns herself after killing her kids. When people hear her crys they come down with an incurable disease/illness and die a few days later and if they are lucky enough they survive the illness but are left scared. But if someone sees her they die the next day or a few days later.
growing up, the version i heard was that the husband cheated on her and she went into an intense rage and at the time the kids were complaining about when the father would return home and she drowned them. she realized what she had done and she cried until god spoke to her saying that what she had done was wrong and that she would mourn her kids until the end of time. and if you hear a women cry at night she was going to take you next
She is real! La Llorona appeared outside my balcony in Mexico at night summer of 2006 when I was 18 years old. She had long dark hair, wore a white dress that glowed, her face was completely black, I couldn’t see her facial features. Before I got out of bed to check on the noise, I heard cats cry, then dogs bark and after that loud human wailing. When I saw her, I ran back to bed and covered my head with the bed sheets. In the morning without mentioning to anyone what I heard and what I saw, my aunt who lives next door confirmed that she had heard La Llorona the the night before.
The very first episode of Supernatural is about a Woman In White, based off La Llorona. After her husband cheated, the woman killed their children in the bathtub then jumped off a nearby bridge and killed herself. She then wandered a nearby road and killed unfaithful men after begging them to take her home. That was my introduction to the La Llorona story
Fun fact, my family has land in mexico. It has a river/creek on the property. When i was a kid i heard this screaming crying near the river. Probably broke a land speed record running back to my granparents house. Ran literally into my grandfather, knocked me on my ass. My grandpa knelt down to check on me and asked me whats wrong. I told him that i heard la llorona. He looked all serious, and took me to the river, rifle in hand. We heard the sound i heard earlier. He started laughing. Then we went into a blind they used for hunting he told me to be quiet and we waited. The crying continued getting closer. I was about to shit and piss my self in fear. Took out my crucifix and started doing the rosary silently. The she walked around the corner. Not la llarona but a cougar. Made the same sound. My grandfather explained while la llarona was something to be afraid of, most of the time it happend to be a cougar. And as he put it “mijo, you dont want to run into either of them alone. So stay by the house unless your with me or grandma.” And i did. Never went by the river again by myself.
Our version in New Mexico relates to the Rio grande river and the ditches for farming. The story was mostly to keep kids from being outside after dark. We were taught that she mistakes you for her kids and takes you away forever, no specifics about ending you. And you were always safe if you were inside a house or car.
The only reason I know about La Llorona is from my babysitter when I was little. She was Mexican and told my brother and I the legend of the weeping woman. She told us that if we cried La Llorona would mistake us for her dead children and take us away. Funnily enough, I remember my babysitter being a sad young woman (she cried a lot over her boyfriend and threw up a lot when she thought we couldn’t hear/weren’t inside). As a child, I thought of her as La Llorona.
I was born in Mexico and know the story. You did a great job explaining it. When I was a kid, I am 100% sure I heard La Llorona. I will never forget the sound of the wails or the terror I felt. I was frozen with fear. Apparently my street used to be a stream or river that was covered up ages ago. It’s truly terrifying.
La Llorona’s story is an extremely tragic one, full of loss and death. her husband was to blame, as was she. La Llorona still has a sliver of humanity inside her, seeing as the moment she had with Chris. She’s a spirit of sadness and grievance, as she’s been searching for over 400 years for her children, and she wants them back with any method possible. The “horrible sound” that put out the candles sounded not like an angry scream, but rather a scream of longing and sadness.
Theres a film called Mama which I think was such a well written and inspired version of a Llorana spirit instead of just the one La Llorana that we know of, as it’s the death of her baby and she seems to “adopt” the two girls that their father tried to murder, before needing to take them into death with her to be at peace.
Good breakdown. I grew up in Mexico and the version I was told (or rather taunted by my older cousins when I was a little girl) was the one where she killed her kids with a knife or puñal rather than drowning them (although the drowning version has become more popular). There was a good 60s black and white Mexican film about La Llorona that is the version where she is called Luisa. It doesn’t have your modern day jump scares but it is a classic and does a better job with showing the tragedy of the villainous spirit and her victims. I wonder if La Llorona will appear in some form or another in the Conjuring movies or the other spin offs. Given that childish laughter Anna heard at the end, it could be a demon or some other kind of evil entity that was always latching on to La Llorona or she latched on to it to continue her demented hauntings. That or it is one of her victims, perhaps one of her kids who refuses to pass on to the afterlife, and like his mom, he’ll wreck havoc.
I heard another — less popular — version of la llorona story from one of my Mexican friends where la llorona was like a protector (goddess or mother figure) of the Aztecs (or something like that) and she would cry “hay mis hijos” as she felt the arrival of the conquistadors basically saying like hay mis hijos (oh my children) who will protect them from such horrible fate that awaits them?? It’s a far less popular version but a favorite one in my opinion. It depicts her as a caring goddess or mother-figure instead of an evil entity.
I remember the legend of La Llarona I grew up with was very different from the version in the Counjurverse. The version I was told was that she was a young widow with two children who caught the eye of a wealthy Spaniard. He began courting her and gifting her with beautiful dresses. She would frequently ask him about marriage but he would always change the subject. One day he finally told her that they couldn’t be married bc she had children from another man. This devastated her and she began crying uncontrollably. She later changed into a beautiful white dress that the Spaniard had given her and had been saving for a special occasion. She then took her children to the river and stabbed them repeatedly, then let their bodies float away. After she killed her children, she went to the wealthy Spaniard’s villa, told him what she did, and then asked if they could be married since she no longer had children from another man. The Spaniard was horrified by the widow’s actions but even more so by her appearance. Her once pristine white dress, as well as her hands and face, were now stained with blood. The Spaniard told her that he had never intended to marry her, that she had only been useful to him while his wife was still in Spain (basically she was his mistress). He then sent her away and told her that if she ever came near his villa again, he would have her killed on sight. The widow was suddenly faced with the realization of what she had done and ran back to the river to find her children.
Coming from someone who knows little to no Spanish i only found the first 20 mins actually good especially with La llorona speaking Spanish to lure in the boy in. After that the movie dropped the ball and became a generic ghost movie with no impact. My gf is also Mexican and she said the movies was disrespectful so I’ll take her word for it lol. On that note these articles are awesome and I do enjoy them
I love studying different cultures legends, demons, gods etc and I loved this one a lot because it felt extremely realistic compared to others and when i saw this movie in theaters I couldn’t help but laugh at how bad it was and also feel disappointed that they didn’t make it as scary as they could have.
I heard a different version from the kids I grew up with here in Texas. The way I heard it was she was poor had kids with a guy he died nobone said how anyways she met a rich guy and they would have been together but he didn’t want her because she had kids so she killed them. When he found out he was horrified and wanted nothing to do with her so she drowned herself in the same river she killed her kids in…. 🤔 I guess theres many different versions of it either way interesting urban legend…
My nanny (who was Mexican) told me there are two people who are meant to be warned by La Llorona’s story; children and young women. The children were warned to behave and stay away from bodies of water lest they drowned. The other people, young women, is a bit more complicated. Maria is seduced by the wealthy man and is usually unmarried. She then becomes abandoned by her wealthy lover who takes a younger and much more suitable girl as his bride, which leads to her drowning her children. Young women were supposed to take this as a warning to not listen to wealthy men who won’t make them their wives.
“La Limpia” translated to, the cleansing.” As I understand it, it uses the fetal chicken inside the egg to absorb negative/malevolent energy from a person or thing. Then you discard it away from home–preferably at a crossroads or in a public place to confuse the energy so it’s less likely to find its way back to you.
I never knew the background of this, but have heard and told a version of this story. I scared the crap out of my nephews with this story while camping at our local lake. I told them her spirit roamed bodies of water looking for children and that her eyes glowed green. They saw a firefly and screamed LOUD.
I think after perusal so many movies, tv shows, and youtube articles, at this article, I think I finally understand ghosts as a genre enough, so a big thank you CZ for that. There’s a human desire in la llorona, but she’s lost so much of her humanity she’s just an embodiment of that desire (to have her children back) and nothing more. She thinks, is conscious, but has lost so much of herself it’s almost animalistic. Very sad.
Oh my god, I remember learning about La Llorona when I was a kid, when I took a Spanish class, and it gave me nightmares for days, nightmares of a ghostly woman taking me and my siblings away, and being drowned (which I think is my greatest fear). It took my father telling me that “ghosts don’t travel that far”, since I live in the Midwest, and La Llorona was too far away to care about me, for me to finally get over that fear.
They’re are actually old legends dating preconquest that state “la llorana” was actually a goddess who protect the land but she had a vision of her people suffering cuz of the invaders who would take over the land and that she wept for her children and their oncoming suffering hence why she calls out ” ahhhyy mis hijos”
I grew up in Mexico and I have relatives that are practitioners the llorona as I was told us actually and malevolent elemental river/ water spirit. Storyline says she is the ghost of some woman who suffered great tragedy and is now vengeful which I was told is made up and enhanced over the years. The llorona is a spirit in the same category as la liebre which the dog like rabbit headed creature the John bell saw while hunting. The haunting began sometime in 1817 when John Bell witnessed the apparition of a strange creature resembling a dog. Just spirits not ghost.
Ahh sii la llorona, being being a scary tale the archetype also shows the shadow of hispanic parents. Many of us grew up with parents saying “yo te di la vida y te la puedo quitar.” Or being abused and hurt by parents because they loved us and it hurt them more than it hurt us. I feel the story also touches on that and how innocent latino children pay the price for unstable unhealthy parents.
The version of the story I heard as a child La Llorona would killed cheating husbands, abusive mothers and spirits away children who stray to far form their parents at night. She isn’t actively looking To hurt children but mistakes lone wandering children for her own and takes them with her to the spirit realm and is even known to cry out and worn parents about oncoming dangers.
14:31 Outside the movie, just for everyone’s information, this is an old magician/medium/scammer’s trick. Usually they’ll crack the egg to reveal a wad of hair mixed in and say it’s a sign of a curse or a bad omen or something. (turn back now if you don’t want to know the secret.) In actuality the hair was concealed in their hand and pushed into the egg with their thumb or forefinger to make it seem like the hair was inside the egg. You can also substitute the hair with anything that is small enough to be hidden in your hand, like a dye packet, figurine, photo, etc. For something more elaborate like this, it’s simple enough to carefully drill a small hole in the shell to mix something in the egg beforehand. It’s a neat trick, but if someone tries to charge you money to remove an evil curse or something just walk away.
While i myself am whiter than a polar bear in a snow storm I grew up in a largely Hispanic area of Los Angeles. I remember hearing about this tale far back as a little kid. Still a folk legend that creeps me out to this day. I won’t even say LaLlorona out loud (my childhood friends abuella told me La Llorona will find you if you say it aloud, though I think I’d be more afraid of his abuellas ghost hearing me say it xD) I was SO disappointed in the conjuring-verse adaptation of her story, though it’s at least cool to see professor CZs covering the history.
Just got done perusal this i did my own version of this movie but also added in the real story as well. But the way I did it i made it look like Anna was Annabelle and had beef with llorona. Lol I thought about you a few days ago when I seen a 30 minute article of cases that Ed and Lorraine wanted no part of . Also I remember the doll scene think I forgot to add it in my version of the story
This legend is so freaking depressing. Even if it were true, I still can’t fathom the whole “blind rage” thing. I’ve been VERY angry and have done things I can’t take back but killing my own kids? I could never. This is one of the scariest stories I’ve ever been told as a teen. It freaks me out even more because there’s so many cases where parents kill their own kids for various reasons.
I think that La Llorona movie would be better in spanish and taking place in México or in Central América because it would be more scary, my grandparents and my mom have encounter La Llorona before and they said that the only way for La Llorona to go away is by preying to God and be a good person but I think that movie did well on it’s own
My grandma use to tell us that la llorona was a really beautiful women . She fell in love with the king But the king only used her to have the kids that the queen could not have . So in a fit of rage she drowned the kids that way the king could not take them from her . She took her life and now she roams in the rivers at nite weeping and looking for her children . My grandma would always try to scare us with her legend . I remember 2 times my grandma waking up scared saying she had heard her .