Legend of La Llorona

Legend of La Llorona

The legend of the weeping woman

Legend has it that in an uncertain place in Latin America a young and beautiful girl of indigenous parents was born. Her name has been lost over time, but it is known that from an early age she exhibited traits delicate and of great beauty, which were accentuated with the entrance of her to adolescence and later to the youth. The young woman always had numerous suitors, who showered her with gifts and flattery, and none of them could ever kindle the flame of love in her breast.

Until one day, the least expected, a traveler appeared in the beautiful girl's village. A man hardened by the road, without a fixed home, but with a lot of experience. And as often happens, the beautiful young woman fell in love with this charming ruffian, and he also fell in love with his beauty.

Against the advice of her parents, the young woman gave herself to that man and together they left town. And in a distant and lonely place, they formed a humble but happy home, in which she every afternoon She waited patiently for the return of her husband, to eat together and celebrate the life they had constructed.

But time passed quickly and the joy of that home began to fade into thin air. And although they had two beautiful children, fights and reproaches became common between the two, and little by little the man began to postpone returning home. He would come back at dawn, drunk and smelling of other people's perfumes, and sometimes he would spend the whole night outside, who knows where and with whom. The young woman, alone with her young children, waited and waited, at first furious and then dead with sadness, not knowing what to do so that her lost joy would return to her home.

One day her husband simply did not come back. Left to her own devices, the young woman resented that bad man to the point that she was willing to leave her too, but she had no money, no way to get it, and she couldn't leave her children to alone. The following nights she spent entire nights without sleeping, thinking about what to do and cursing the day she had fallen in love with that traveler in her town.

Rage built up inside him and ate at her sanity. The children cried incessantly, starving. The lonely house creaked in the middle of nowhere. So one night, surrendered to her pain, the young woman got up and dragged her little ones to the nearby river. There she washed them, kissed their small faces and then plunged them all the way into the water, until she felt her frantic little bodies stop moving.

Only then did the young woman come to her senses and witnessing the horror that she had just committed, she gave herself up to a cry deep, infinite, that she did not stop until several days later, when her hunger, sadness and madness ripped her from this life. But her soul, tormented, had no rest, and she continued crying and lamenting alive voice. The specter of her rose from the banks of the river to wander around in search of that bad man, guilty of her misfortunes, or someone who was similar to her.

A little more about the legend of La Llorona

There are many versions of the legend of La Llorona, also known as “la sayona”, “la cachona”, “la widow ”or“ la pucullén ”, as it is one of the best known and most widespread legends of all Hispanic America. And there are different accounts of its supposed origin, each one adapted to folklore and traditions local.

The scholars of myth they point out that it is a modern reinterpretation of a story of pre-Hispanic origins, with roots in the Nahuatl culture, the Quechua culture, the Aymara culture and even the Guaraní culture. It is also thought that it may be a Hispanic story created around certain Mesoamerican deities of the Purépecha tradition, Zapotec, Mayan or Nahua, since they abound with female ghosts linked to water and who punish men.

The first Hispanic transcription of the legend of La Llorona took place in the General history of the things of New Spain (1540-1585) written by a Franciscan missionary named Bernardino de Sahagún (c. 1499-1590). According to this Friar, the legend of the weeping woman was told by the indigenous Mexica. In his tradition, this ghost was identified with the goddess Cihuacóatl.

On the other hand, the weeping woman presents important similarities with other supernatural and mythological figures of the West, especially with the women who deny their maternal role or who commit crimes against their children out of love, such as the sorceress Medea of ​​the Greco-Roman tradition; or like the banshee of Celtic folklore, announcing the death of loved ones with their wailing and groaning amidst the woods.

References:

• "Legend" in Wikipedia.
• "Llorona" in Wikipedia.
• "The true story behind the legend of the weeping woman" in Infobae.
• "La llorona; true (and terrifying) legend ”in National Geographic in Spanish.

What is a legend?

The legends are narrations that lack a known author and original version, that are transmitted from generation to generation, especially orally, and that tell events supernatural, fantastic or religious, located in a very specific place and time in real history, which contributes to making them more credible.

It is one of the most common forms of traditional storytelling, especially in rural and popular culture, which reflects in some way the values and the traditions of the population in which it arises, since the legends are usually typical of a specific country, region or locality.

Legends survive the passage of time by changing their content and adapting to new generations, who cover it and adapt it to their way of life or, on the contrary, let it lose. In fact, the so-called “urban legends” are legends adapted to a modern city context.

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