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'{{short description|Latin American folklore legend}} {{other uses}} {{Redirect|Weeping Woman|The painting by [[Pablo Picasso]]|The Weeping Woman|the sculpture by Auguste Rodin|Weeping Woman (sculpture)}} {{multiple issues| {{Refimprove|date=November 2010}} {{rewrite|date=January 2018}} }} [[Image:llorona.jpg|thumb|Actors representing ''La Llorona'', 2003]] In Latin American folklore, specifically Mexican, '''La Llorona''' ({{IPA-es|la ʝoˈɾona|pron}}; "The Weeping Woman" or "the Cryer") is one of the most famous oral legends. The lore states a woman was unloved by her husband and her husband loved their two sons instead of her. She caught her husband with another woman and drowned her sons in a river. Out of grief and anger she then drowned herself. She was refused entry to heaven until she found the souls of her two sons. She cries and wails and takes children and drowns them in the river she and her sons drowned in. The legend represents La Llorona as a person or ghost. ==Legend== The legend described in this article is the Mexican version of this folktale. Other regional variations of the story exist. According to the legend, in a rural village in [[Mexico]], there lived a young woman named María. She came from a poor family but was known around her village for her beauty and grace. One day, an extremely wealthy nobleman was riding through her village and stopped in his tracks. He had traveled all over the world and has never seen anyone as beautiful as María. He was mesmerized by her. He knew that he had to win her heart. María was easily charmed by him and he was charmed by her beauty, so when he proposed to her, she immediately accepted. Eventually, the two [[married]], and María gave birth to two sons. Her husband was always traveling and he stopped spending time with his family. When he came home, he only paid attention to the children and as time passed María could tell that her husband was falling out of love with her because she was getting old. One day he returned to the village with a younger woman, and bid his children farewell, ignoring María.<ref name="literacynet1">{{cite web|url=http://www.literacynet.org/lp/hperspectives/llorona.html|title=LA LLORONA - A HISPANIC LEGEND|website=www.literacynet.org|access-date=2016-12-07}}{{deadlink|date=August 2019}}</ref> María, angry and hurt, took her children to a river and drowned them in a blind rage. She realized 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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.literacynet.org/lp/hperspectives/llorona.html|title=LA LLORONA - A HISPANIC LEGEND|website=www.literacynet.org|access-date=2016-12-07}} {{verify source |date=August 2019 |reason=This ref was deleted ([[Special:Diff/895541579]]) by a bug in VisualEditor and later restored by a bot from the original cite at [[Special:Permalink/895407269]] cite #1 - please verify the cite's accuracy and remove this {verify source} template. [[User:GreenC_bot/Job_18]]}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=There Was a Woman|last=Perez|first=Domino|publisher=|year=2008|isbn=978-0-292-71812-8|location=|pages=}}</ref>^<nowiki/> La Llorona kidnaps wandering children at night, mistaking them for her own. She begs [[Heaven|the heavens]] for forgiveness, and drowns the children she kidnaps.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexicomix/article/Mexico-s-legend-of-La-Llorona-continues-to-3933072.php|title=Mexico's legend of La Llorona continues to terrify|newspaper=SFGate|access-date=2016-12-07}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://imaginespirit.com/the-chilling-legend-of-la-llorona/|title=Chilling Legend of La Llorona {{!}} Psychic-Mediumship Training|website=imaginespirit.com|access-date=2016-12-07}}</ref> Some believe those who hear the wails of La Llorona are marked for death or misfortune, similar to the Gaelic [[banshee]] legend.<ref name="The Legend of La Llorona">{{cite book|last1=De Aragon|first1=Ray John|title=The Legend of La Llorona|date=2006|publisher=Sunstone Press|location=Santa Fe, NM|page=4}}</ref> 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 "¿Donde estan 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pUAhNtrO-xYC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=la+calle+donde+tu+vives+la+llorona&source=bl&ots=_2MWHWv9ef&sig=N5VM6ATvSD2F2A4GGJTRNQavXQY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwibyuPPj5veAhVj94MKHSLICRkQ6AEwC3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=la%20calle%20donde%20tu%20vives%20la%20llorona&f=false |title=La calle donde tu vives - Héctor Gaitán - Google Books |publisher=Books.google.com |date= |accessdate=2019-01-12}}</ref> ==Origins== The legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is traditionally known throughout Latin America, including [[Mexico]], [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]].{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}} {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is also sometimes identified with {{lang|es|[[La Malinche]]}},<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=La Llorona (The Weeping Woman)|last=Hayes|first=Joe|publisher=Cinco Puntos Press; Bilingual edition|year=2006|isbn=|location=El Paso, Texas|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> the Nahua woman who served as {{lang|es|[[Hernán Cortés]]|italic=no}}'s interpreter and mistress who bore his children<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.donquijote.org/culture/mexico/history/la-malinche|title=La Malinche - Spanish Conquest of Mexico {{!}} don Quijote|website=donQuijote|access-date=2016-12-07}}</ref> and who some say was betrayed by the Spanish [[conquistador]]s. In one folk story of {{lang|es|La Malinche}}, she became Cortés's mistress and bore him a child, only to be abandoned so that he could marry a Spanish lady (although no evidence exists that {{lang|es|La Malinche}} killed her children). Aztec pride drove {{lang|es|La Malinche}} to acts of vengeance. In this context, the tale compares the Spanish discovery of the [[New World]] and the demise of indigenous culture after the conquest with {{lang|es|La Llorona}}'s loss. Stories of weeping female phantoms are common in the folklore of both [[Europe]]an and [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous American]] cultures. Scholars have pointed out similarities between {{lang|es|La Llorona}} and the {{lang|nah|[[Cihuacōātl]]}} of [[Aztec mythology]],{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}} as well as [[Eve]] and [[Lilith]] of [[Old World]] mythology.{{sfn|Norget|2006|p=146}} Author [[Ben Radford]]'s investigation into the legend of {{lang|es|La Llorona}}, published in ''[[Mysterious New Mexico]]'', traced elements of the story back to a German folktale dating from 1486.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Radford|first1=Ben|title=Mysterious New Mexico|date=2014|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|location=Albuquerque|isbn=978-0-8263-5450-1|page=228|quote=While the classic image of {{lang|es|La Llorona}} was likely taken from an Aztec goddess named {{lang|nah|Cihuacōātl}}, the narrative of her legend has other origins. As Bacil Kirtley (1960) wrote in Western Folklore, "During the same decade that {{lang|es|La Llorona}} was first mentioned in Mexico, a story, seemingly already quite old, of '{{lang|de|Die Weisse Frau}}' ('The White Lady')—which reproduces many of the features consistently recurring in the more developed versions of '{{lang|es|La Llorona}}', was recorded in Germany"; references to {{lang|de|Die Weisse Frau}} date back as early as 1486. The story of the White Lady follows a virtually identical plot to the classical {{lang|es|La Llorona}} story.}}</ref> The earliest published reference to {{lang|es|La Llorona}} occurred in a sonnet written by Mexican poet [[Manuel Carpio]] in the late 1800s. The poem makes no reference to infanticide, rather {{lang|es|La Llorona}} is identified as the ghost of a woman who was murdered by her husband.{{sfn|Werner|1997|p=753}} ===Similar folktales=== The [[Chumash people|Chumash]] of Southern California have their own connection to {{lang|es|La Llorona}}. [[Chumash traditional narratives|Chumash mythology]] mentions {{lang|es|La Llorona}} when explaining {{lang|boi|nunašɨš}} (creatures of the other world) called the {{lang|boi|maxulaw}} or {{lang|boi|mamismis}}.<ref name=":1" /> Mythology says the Chumash believe in both the {{lang|boi|nunašɨš}} and {{lang|es|La Llorona}} and specifically hear the {{lang|boi|maxulaw}} cry up in the trees. The {{lang|boi|maxulaw}} cry is considered an omen of death.<ref name=":1" /> The {{lang|boi|maxulaw}} is described as looking like a cat with skin of rawhide leather.<ref name=":1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=e2lC7XcLrzoC&lpg=PP1&dq=december's%20child%20chumash&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false ed. Blackburn, Thomas C. "December's Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives" p. 93]</ref> Outside the Americas, {{lang|es|La Llorona}} bears a resemblance to the ancient [[Greece|Greek]] tale of the demonic [[demigod]]ess [[Lamia]].<ref name="Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do">{{cite book|title=Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bl39j_0xZfMC&pg=PA110|publisher=University of North Texas Press|isbn=9781574412239|year=2006}}</ref> [[Hera]], Zeus' wife, learned of his affair with Lamia and, out of anger, killed all the children Lamia had with Zeus.<ref name="Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do" /> Out of jealousy over the loss of her own children, Lamia steals other women's children.<ref name="Folklore: In All of Us, In All We Do" /> In Greek mythology, [[Medea]] killed the two children fathered by [[Jason]] (one of the Argonauts) after he left her for another woman. ==In popular culture== {{refimprove section|date=March 2016}} {{in popular culture|section|date=January 2019}} The plot of the 1961 [[Cinema of Mexico|Mexican film]] ''[[The Curse of the Crying Woman]]'' ''(La maldición de la llorona)'' involves the resurrection of the spirit of La Llorona. La Llorona appeared as the main antagonist in the 2007 movie ''[[J-ok'el]]''. La Llorona appeared as the first antagonist in the 2005 [[Pilot (Supernatural)|pilot]] episode of the TV series ''[[Supernatural (U.S. TV series)|Supernatural]]''. [[Sarah Shahi]] portrayed Constance Welch, The Woman in White who, after discovering her husband's infidelity took the lives of her two children by drowning them in a bathtub at home and soon after, took her own by jumping off a bridge into a river. Her ghost was known to haunt the Centennial Highway, hitchhiking unknowing motorists, mostly men, and killing those whom she deemed unfaithful. Main character [[Sam Winchester]] destroyed her ghost by crashing his car into the house where she used to live. Finally facing the ghosts of her children, The Woman in White was destroyed by her own guilt from killing them. La Llorona appears as the main antagonist of the Mexican animated film ''[[La Leyenda de la Llorona]]''. Here, La Llorona is portrayed as a more sympathetic character, with her children's deaths coming as an accident rather than at her own hands. In 1995, Mexican playwright [[Josefina López]] wrote "Unconquered Spirits", which uses the myth of La Llorona as a plot device. The play has two time periods, with Act One taking place in 16th Century Mexico after Spain occupied it. Here, Lopez takes inspiration from the "La Malinche" variation, with the heroine represented as a young Aztec girl who is brutally raped by a Spanish Friar. She gives birth to twin boys as a result, and drowns them in the river out of protection rather than spite. Act Two takes place in 1938 amidst the San Antonio Pecan Sheller's Strike. A widowed mother who works at the Pecan factory has an abortion after being raped by her white supervisor, resulting in a visit from La Llorona to give her the strength to fight back against her attacker. The play is well noted for its sympathetic portrayal of La Llorona as a victim of oppression. In [[Nancy Farmer]]'s 2002 science fiction novel, ''[[The House of the Scorpion]]'', and its 2013 sequel book, ''[[The Lord of Opium]]'', the main character, Matt, makes several references to La Llorona, often when retelling the story to other main characters or during self-reflection. The 2006 Mexican horror film ''[[Kilometer 31]]'' is inspired by the legend of La Llorona, and the main evil entity in the film is based on her and her story.{{cn|date=January 2019}} La Llorona has also been the theme character of several of [[Universal Studios]]'s haunted houses during their annual Halloween event, [[Halloween Horror Nights]] (Both Hollywood and Orlando locations).<ref>{{cite web|title=La Llorona comes to "Halloween Horror Nights"|url=http://www.latimes.com/visuals/video/65277378-132.html|website=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=12 June 2017}}</ref> ''La Llorona'' also is a short film which was released in 2015 which was directed by Shannon Ivey<ref>{{imdb name|1836673|Shannon Ivey}}</ref> and co directed by Matt Guthrie.<ref>{{imdb name|2532628|Matt Guthrie}}</ref> In April 2019, [[James Wan]], [[Gary Dauberman]] and Emilie Gladstone produced a film titled ''[[The Curse of La Llorona]]''. The film is the sixth installment in [[The Conjuring Universe]]. It was released on April 19, 2019, by [[New Line Cinema]] and [[Warner Bros. Pictures]]. The film was directed by [[Michael Chaves (director)|Michael Chaves]] and stars [[Linda Cardellini]], [[Raymond Cruz]], [[Patricia Velasquez]] and Marisol Ramirez, who portrays the ghost.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bloody Disgusting about James Wan's The Curse of La Llorona|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3511144/saw-footage-chapter-2-nun-la-llorona-new-lines-scarediego/|website=Bloody Disgusting}}</ref> ==See also== *[[La Llorona (song)]] *[[La Llorona (1933 film)|''La Llorona'' (1933 film)]] *[[La Llorona (1960 film)|''La Llorona'' (1960 film)]] *''[[The Curse of the Crying Woman]]'' *[[The Cry (2007 film)|''The Cry'' (2017)]] *[[Mama (2013 film)|''Mama'' (2013 film)]] *[[Ghosts in Mexican culture]] *''[[Chasing Papi]]'' *''[[The Silbón]]'' *''[[The Curse of La Llorona]]'' ===Analogues=== *[[Black Lady of Bradley Woods]] *[[Bloody Mary (folklore)]] *[[White Lady (ghost)]] *[[Banshee]] *[[Baobhan sith]] *[[Kuchisake-onna]] *[[Leannán sídhe]] *[[Huldra]] *[[Sayona]] *[[Soucouyant]] *[[Samodiva (mythology)]] *[[Clíodhna]] *[[Aswang]] *[[Pontianak (folklore)]] *[[Manananggal]] *[[Rusalka]] *[[Succubus]] *[[Medea]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==Bibliography== *Perez, Domino Renee, ''There Was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture'' *Mathews, Holly F. 1992. The directive force of morality tales in a Mexican community. In ''Human motives and cultural models'', edited by R.G.D'Andrade and C. Strauss, 127-62. New York: Cambridge University Press. *{{cite book|title=Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca|last=Norget|first=Kristin|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|year=2006|isbn=0-231-13688-9|ref=harv}} *[[Ray John de Aragon|Ray John De Aragon]], ''The Legend of La Llorona'', Sunstone Press, 2006. {{ISBN|9781466429796}}. *[[Belinda Vasquez Garcia]], ''The Witch Narratives Reincarnation'', Magic Prose Publishing, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-86534-505-8}} *{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture - Vol. 1|last=Werner|first=Michael S.|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|location=Chicago|year=1997|isbn=1-884964-31-1|ref=harv}} ==External links== *[http://legendsofamerica.com/HC-WeepingWoman1.html The New Mexican La Llorona] *[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lxl01 Handbook of Texas Online] A summary of the tale. *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0713618/ Supernatural TV Series - Season 1 - Pilot Episode ] Woman in White Episode *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2427016/ Grimm TV Series - Season 2 - Episode 9 - La Llorona Episode] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130607120803/http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/ghost-bride-morgana-haunting-soon La Llorona in League of Legends] *[http://kate-vargas.com/track/572289/mama-watched-me-sink Mama Watched Me Sink 2014 song by Kate Vargas] *[http://www.artefest.com/la-llorona.html La Llorona, 2015 short film] *[http://www.leyendadelallorona.net Leyenda de la Llorona] The complete story in Spanish *https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00HCVMJ8G {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Llorona, La}} [[Category:La Llorona| ]] [[Category:Mythology of the Americas]] [[Category:Myths and legends of Colombia]] [[Category:Spanish-language South American legendary creatures]] [[pt:A bela da meia-noite]]'