After drowning her children in a moment of rage, La Llorona killed herself out of guilt and became a ghost, doomed to haunt bodies of water for all eternity.
Wikimedia CommonsA malevolent ghost who portends doom and brings death, La Llorona remains one of the most terrifying figures in the folklore of Latin American and the Southwest.
Patricio Lujan was a young boy in New Mexico in the 1930s when a normal day with his family in Santa Fe was interrupted by the sight of a strange woman near their property. The family watched in curious silence as the tall, thin woman dressed in all white crossed the road near their house without a word and headed for a nearby creek.
It wasn’t until she got to the water that the family realized something was really wrong.
As Lujan tells it “she just seemed to glide as if having no legs” before disappearing. After reappearing at a distance far too quickly for any normal woman to have traversed, she disappeared again for good without leaving a single footprint behind. Lujan was disturbed but knew exactly who the woman had been: La Llorona.
The legend of La Llorona, or “The Weeping Woman,” is a deeply rooted tale in Mexican and Southwestern U.S. folklore. Although the origins of the story have been lost to time, La Llorona is consistently described as a sorrowful ghostly figure who wails near bodies of water, mourning her lost children. Some versions of the story trace her to Aztec mythology, connecting her to goddesses like Cihuacōātl, the “Snake Woman,” and Chalchiuhtlicue, who both had associations with water and child sacrifice.
Others suggest La Llorona may be a version of La Malinche, the indigenous woman who played a crucial role during Hernán Cortés’ conquest of Mexico and is said in some retellings to have killed her children after being betrayed by Cortés. Across different retellings, the central elements remain the same: a woman, haunted by the loss of her children, weeps by the water.
Aztec Origins Of La Llorona, The “Weeping Woman”
Flickr CommonsA statue of La Llorona, the murderous mother of Southwestern and Mexican folklore.
The legend of La Llorona translates to “The Weeping Woman,” and is popular throughout the southwestern United States and Mexico. The tale has various retellings and origins, but La Llorona is always described as a willowy white figure who appears near the water wailing for her children.
Mentions of La Llorona can be traced back over four centuries, although the origins of the tale have been lost to time.
She has been connected to the Aztecs as one of ten omens predicting the conquest of Mexico or as a fearsome goddess. One such goddess is known as Cihuacōātl or “Snake Woman,” who has been described as “a savage beast and an evil omen” who wears white, walks about at night, and constantly cries.
Madman2001/Wikimedia CommonsA statue of Cihuacōātl at the National Anthropology Museum c. 1325 – 1521 C.E.
Another goddess is that of Chalchiuhtlicue or “the Jade-skirted one” who oversaw the waters and was greatly feared because she allegedly would drown people. In order to honor her, the Aztecs sacrificed children.
Hernán Cortés And La Malinche May Inspire La Llorona
Wikimedia CommonsIn some versions of the story, La Llorona is actually La Malinche, the native woman who assisted Hernán Cortés.
An entirely different origin story coincides with the arrival of the Spanish in America back in the 16th century. According to this version of the tale, La Llorona was actually La Malinche, a native woman who served as an interpreter, guide, and later mistress to Hernán Cortés during his conquest of Mexico.
The conquistador left her after she gave birth and instead married a Spanish woman. Despised now by her own people, it is said that La Malinche murdered Cortés’ spawn in vengeance.
There is no evidence that the historic La Malinche — who did in fact exist — killed her children or was exiled by her people. However, it is possible that the Europeans did bring the seeds of the legend of La Llorona from their homeland.
Library of CongressThis illustration of the “Weeping Woman” is found in the Florentine Codex, an ethnographic study of Mesoamerica by a Franciscan friar from Spain circa the 1570s, and it may be history’s oldest extant rendering of La Llorona.
The legend of a vengeful mother who slays her own offspring can be traced all the way back to Medea of Greek mythology, who killed her sons after being betrayed by her husband Jason. The ghostly wails of a woman warning of impending death also share similarities with the Irish banshees. English parents have long used the tail of “Jenny Greenteeth,” who drags children down into a watery grave to keep adventurous children away from water where they might stumble in. Evidently, this terrifying figure has roots in many cultures.
The Common Origin Story Of La Llorona
Wikimedia CommonsA statue of La Llorona in Xochimilco, Mexico.
The most popular version of the tale features a stunning young peasant woman named Maria who married a wealthy man. The couple lived happily for a time and had two children together before Maria’s husband lost interest in her. One day while walking by the river with her two children, Maria caught sight of her husband riding by in his carriage accompanied by a pretty young woman.
In a fit of rage, Maria flung her two children into the river and drowned them both. When her anger subsided and she realized what she had done, she succumbed to such profound grief that she spent the rest of her days wailing by the river in search of her children.
Wikimedia CommonsDepiction of La Llorona carved into a tree in Mexico.
In another version of the story, Maria cast herself into the river immediately after her children. In yet others, Maria was a vain woman who spent her nights reveling in town instead of tending to her children. After one drunken evening, she returned home to find them both drowned. She was cursed for her neglectfulness to search for them in her afterlife.
The constants of the legend are always the dead children and a wailing woman, either as a human or ghost. La Llorona is often spotted in white crying for her children or “mis hijos” near running water.
Wikimedia CommonsStatues of La Llorona can be found throughout Mexico and the American Southwest.
By some traditions, the ghost of La Llorona is 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.
SmithsonianA doll of La Llorona from New Mexico.
Terrifying Testimonies Of The Weeping Woman
New Line CinemaA scene from the 2019 horror film The Curse of La Llorona.
In 2019, the Hollywood film The Curse of La Llorona hit the big screen. The film explored La Llorona and pictured her as a tormented spirit attempting to tear apart a family. Three years later, another film featuring La Llorona as a main character graced the horror genre.
Ultimately, the story of La Llorona has captured the attention of millions worldwide. What started as a regional horror story spread to into the global consciousness. No doubt the growing interest in La Llorona stems from the thousands of real-word witnesses who claim to have encountered the terrifying spirit.
In October 2020, the Latin American news site Mitú published some of their viewers’ most horrifying personal accounts of La Llorona:
“I have lived my whole life in El Paso, Texas. The culture is rich in folklore and religious beliefs. Many Hispanic families have stories of the paranormal. One night just like any other night, I lived in a trailer with my mom and dad. My youngest brother was staying with my aunt that night.
I fell asleep watching Jay Leno as usual, and when I woke up, I was on the sofa in my living room. The time was 4:00 am which illuminated from the stove in the kitchen. The television was off, and normally I had a light on, but this time it was pitch black. I woke up, and I heard a horrible screaming that was coming from far in the distance. The screaming was coming from a ditch that was a few feet away from my home. I heard it, and I thought I was hearing things.
It sounded like I was in a big hallway, and a woman was screaming her guts out down that hallway. Then in all the screaming, I started to make out words. These words being said by whoever this was at 4 a.m. screaming their guts out, shocked me. The woman said, ‘¡Ay, mis hijos!’ (Oh, my children!).
To this day, I don’t care what people think of my experience. I know what I heard. A couple of years later, it happened to me again.”
Another bone chilling account of La Llorona read:
“My mom is from a small town in Mexico located in Zacatecas. When she was around 14, she had the habit of waking her mom up to go to the restroom since it was an older home and the restroom was located outside. My mom told me that it was around 3 AM when she woke up and felt the need to use the restroom urgently. So she began calling out for her mom.
After a while of her mom not responding, she began getting agitated and started screaming. At this point, my mom turns around, and at the foot of her bed, she sees her mom standing there. She was wearing a white robe but had a very bleak expression on her face & both of her arms were extended.
My mom said that she suddenly felt extremely cold and had a huge sense of dread. She had never seen her mom wear a white robe…that’s when she looked down and saw her “mom’s” feet weren’t touching the floor. At that moment, she screamed and quickly threw the covers over her head. Her mom wearing something completely different, runs in to find my mom shaking in her bed. Nobody believed my mom; everyone told her it was a dream.
Until a few days later, there was a power outage. During this, my mom and a few of her siblings with her parents all decided to sleep in the living room. At around the same time at 3 AM, they heard the same undeniable wails of La Llorona down their street. None of them slept that night.”
With new chilling accounts like these appearing every year, the story of La Llorona only becomes more deeply ingrained in popular culture and folklore worldwide.
After learning about La Llorona, read about some of the most haunted places in the world. Then, learn about Robert the Doll, what might be the most haunted toy in history.
