Origins of La Llorona
La Llorona is a folktale most commonly spoken throughout Mexico, Latin America, and parts of the United States. For the many parts of the Americas in which this tale is told, there are many versions of it as well. Though the story varies widely on her appearance, actions, and why she became this vengeful spirit, all versions share one common trait - the woman crying. La Llorona is Spanish for "the weeping woman," easily explaining this common trait among all versions of the tale.
She is typically described as being a woman with fair - or even ghostly - skin, long dark hair, and wearing a white dress. However, as previously mentioned, the ways in which - and reasons why - she presents herself vary. In 2004 Judith Beatty published her book The Weeping Woman: Encounters with La Llorona in which she compiles multiple versions of the story. In some versions she stalks you from afar, in others she rides a horse, and in other versions, she may come by horse-drawn carriage cautioning you against bad behavior. Regardless of the means by which she appears though, she is most often associated with children. La Llorona is said to be crying as mourns her lost or dead children. In many versions of her story, she was responsible herself for the deaths of her children and was cursed to walk the earth in her ghostly form as punishment.
Stephen Winick is an M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore/Folklife recipient from the University of Pennsylvania and has been a writer/editor for the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center for the past 18 years. In 2021 he wrote a series of articles about La Llorona, and in his second article La Llorona: Roots, Branches, and the Missing Link from Spain Winick claims that stories of La Llorona typically can be placed in one of two categories; encounter stories or biographical/origin stories. Encounter stories are those which recall a specific encounter with La Llorona or describe what an experience with her entails, whereas biographical/origin stories are those detailing who she was prior to becoming a ghost. Winick claims that even though most stories combine elements of both, one typically is more prominent.
Though the idea my group is going with where La Llorona haunts a young couple is an encounter story, I believe that an origin story or some form of combination could be quite interesting as well. Her origin story is one that has multiple versions, which gives us plenty of content/options to work with. Additionally, La Llorona's story has some historical origins according to Winick in his aforementioned second article. Winwick wrote that La Llorona's story has many ties to and parallels with that of the Aztec goddess of fertility Cihuacoatl. Write Americo Padres claimed that other elements of traditional Mexican folklore contributed to La Llorona as well, citing the story of matlachihua, or "Woman of the Nets." The existence of these Aztec roots is super fascinating, and it gives my group the opportunity to include some of these unique historical and cultural elements in our film.
Between the mid and late 16th century a Franciscan friar named Bernardino de Sahagun wrote an encyclopedia that detailed the experience of the Nahuatl people (native Mexicans), entitled Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana (General History of the Things of New Spain - also known as The Florentine Codex, Book XII). In 1509 a Nahuatl man experienced the following events, which he would later recount for Sahagun's book; "The people heard a weeping woman night after night. She passed by in the middle of the night, wailing and crying out in a loud voice: 'My children we must flee far away from this city!' At other times she cried: 'My children, where shall I take you?'" This is one of the earliest definitive accountings of a story similar to that of La Llorona - likely being a major piece of inspiration for her story.
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| Above is an illustration of the Aztec goddess Ciocoatl, from The Florentine Codex, Book XII. Within this book, she is also referred to as a "weeping" spirit and a "child-eating demon." |
As previously mentioned, La Llorona has been described in a variety of ways. Below I'm going to reference some of the literature and ways in which she has been described.
In 1910 historian and writer Thomas Allibone Janvier published his book Legends of the City of Mexico. Within his book, he told the story of La Llorona which he had allegedly heard from a friend of his who lived in Mexico City. He wrote the following:
"A long, long time ago there lived a woman named Maria. She was the most beautiful woman in all of Mexico, muy hermosa, and she herself knew it too. Day after day, male suitors begged her for her hand in romance, but day after day men returned home defeated, con el corazón roto. This was the livelihood of Maria until a dashing young gentleman galloped into town and turned Maria’s life upside down; ella se volvió loca. She knew in an instant that she had to have him, for he was the only man to match her in beauty and in elegance. Soon they were to be wed, and not long after had two delightful chiquititos. This delight however was short lived, for one damning day the dashing gentleman became grotesque as he rode into town with another woman at his side. He rode up to Maria and pledged his life to this new woman whom he barely met, because his current wife was no longer beautiful. Maria’s heart burst into tiny shards of glass, invisible to the eye but painful for those handling it. That night, in a fit of sorrow and anger Maria decided to inflict the same agony toward the man that bestowed it upon her. Maria woke her two boys up, took their hands, and guided them to the river “for a bath.” Hand in hand, the three figures immersed themselves in the water…but under their mother’s hand, the little niños never came up for air. After the blood red glare of fury faded from sight, Maria realized what she had done. She shrieked from the gallows of her soul, “Mis Niños!” before letting the river water fill up her lungs. It is said now, this weeping woman or La Llorona has returned from the hereafter, searching for new children to claim as her own for all eternity."
In 1947 Frances Toor - an author who specialized in Mexico/Mexican indigenous cultures - wrote A Treasury of Mexican Folkways. Within the book, Toor wrote the following on the origins of La Llorona:
In 1968 folk musician, folklorist, and researcher Bess Lomax Hawes published her paper La Llorona in Juvenile Hall. Within the paper are various accounts/interpretations of the La Llorona story from a California juvenile detention center throughout the 1960s. Among the many stories and descriptions within this paper though, was the following: "La Llorona typically appears as a malevolent spirit, either a harbinger or a direct cause of misfortune to the living. Sometimes she takes the form of a “dangerous siren,” tempting a solitary male late at night by confronting him as a pitiful, woebegone figure hidden under a rebozo. When offered assistance, she turns on the solicitous gentleman the face of a skeleton or a wild metallic horse’s head or no face at all. Sometimes she is observed simply roaming about at a distance, or most typically, she is heard weeping and shrieking through the night. A chance meeting with her is dangerous"
As stated earlier, the one common factor amongst all accounts of La Llorona is her weeping. Although versions of her story span many parts of Latin America as well as the United States, the Aztec/Mexican origin of her story are undeniable. As such, it is extremely important that within our retelling of La Llorona, we emphasize Mexican culture specifically. These various accounts of La Llorona show that regardless of how central Mexican culture is to the story - and vice versa - La Llorona herself can take on many names/appearances. Thanks to La Llorona's complex and culturally rich history we have plenty of story types, motives, appearances, etc. to choose from and work with when we create our film.
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