Blog Post — La Llorena: The Weeping Woman
La Llorona, or The Weeping Woman, is a popular legend in Mexican folklore that has been around since the conquistadores (Weiser). There are different variations of the story, but one notable version is where La Llorona is described as a beautiful woman who marries a wealthy man in her village and has two children with him (Weiser). However, he begins to become unfaithful, and returns to a life of alcohol and womanizing (Weiser). In protest, La Llorena is said to have drowned the children in a fit of rage (Weiser). As a result, she is said to haunt rivers and bodies of water to drown children who have strayed from their parents as punishment for drowning her own children (Weiser). This legend has been passed down for generations, but it has continued to live on through children’s literature, as seen by the goodreads list of books about La Llorona (Morales). The story was also recently produced as a horror movie titled The Curse of La Llorona. Some parents share the story with their children because of its cultural significance, while others use it as a cautionary tale to scare their children from straying away from their parents (Lyons).
Although it can be described as central to Hispanic identity (Lyons), it is important to consider the impact that La Llorona can create in society beyond the idea of keeping children safe. Different variations of the story are very heavily gendered, and they often promote the ideals of machismo, where males are seen as dominant and females are meant to respect men regardless in Latino culture. Matyka-Dabrowski suggests that the story means a few different things: that women who are without men are dangerous, not good for children, and that they should be socialized into the traditional role of being servers to the male population (Matyka-Dabrowski 15). However, the story has been somewhat revised as of recently, and some people claim the new La Llorona to be a story about women of Mexican descent defying traditional gender roles, and her crying is meant to, “symbolize the children lost through assimilation into the dominant patriarchal culture or lost to violence and prejudice” (Matyka-Dabrowski 15-16). Interpretation of this story is certainly up for debate due to its uncertain origins, but it is still a very commonly shared story that has found its way into all sorts of media, including children’s literature. It will be interesting to see whether authors continue to incorporate the story in future publishings, and if so, how they will choose to adapt and portray La Llorona to deliver their message.
Works Cited
Weiser, Kathy. La Llorona – Weeping Woman of the Southwest. Legends of America, Mar. 2017, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2019.
Morales, Yuyi. Books about the Mexican ghost La Llorona, the weeping woman. Goodreads, 6 July 2013, https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/39831.Books_about_the_Mexican_ghost_La_Llorona_the_weeping_woman_. Accessed 22 Apr. 2019.
Lyons, Luke. The legend of La Llorona still impacts Hispanic culture. The Pueblo Chieftain, 21 Oct. 2017, https://www.chieftain.com/c1eceb15-e0ea-5b3c-ba6d-b475d76268cc.html. Accessed 22 Apr. 2019.
Matyka-Dabrowski, Karolina. The Power of Words: Feminism in Latin American Literature. La Salle University Digital Commons, Spring 2017, https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=undergraduateresearch. Accessed 22 Apr. 2019.