by Denise Calaman

Created on: December 20, 2011   Last Updated: December 21, 2011

Walking through the countryside anywhere in Latin America don’t be surprised if you hear the heart-wrenching, mournful cries of La Llorona. She no doubt will be lingering somewhere in the night. La Llorona (the weeping woman) is a mythical creature of Hispanic folklore throughout Latin America, although some say that she indeed is real, after hearing her cries late at night. 

La Llorona has good reason to cry. She belts out her soulful cries because her children have perished. But don’t feel bad for her. As the legend goes, she killed her own children and it was all because of lust and greed. Throughout Latin America including Puerto Rico and Mexico her legend varies only in minor details. 

La Llorona was christened as Maria, a beautiful woman born in the rural countryside of Latin America. As she grew into a young woman she attracted the attention of many men who were astounded by her beauty. Her story takes off when after she had two sons, she felt the burden of motherhood and found it difficult to have a social life and take care of her sons at the same time. Some versions of the story say that she lusted after one man, a young, dashing ranchero, who did not hold her in the same regard. 

As a result, La Llorona kills her sons by drowning them so that she is relieved of the burden of motherhood. Depending on what version of the story you believe, this made it easier for her to go out or she could have thought in her delusional mind that it would make her young ranchero lust after her now that she was free of children. 

But all doesn’t work out like La Llorona had planned. She doesn’t find true love and she takes her own life. At the gates of Heaven she is forbidden to enter the Kingdom until she retrieves her children and brings them with her. As a result she is forced to wander the Earth for all of eternity. 

Legend states that La Llorona flies up out of lakes or rivers in the Latin American countryside only at night. Not long after she rises up out of the water her banshee- like cries can be heard for miles. Every society has its own legends or folklore to explain things that often happen in nature. It is ironic that the legend of La Llorona tells of a woman with a cry very similar to the Gaelic legend of the banshee. 

So is there really someone name La Llorona who lives throughout Latin America?  Or just as in Ireland and many other places around the world, was her legend created to explain the many eerie noises that often invade the rural countryside at nighttime? Next time you are wandering through the Latin American countryside, you can be the judge. 

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