Researching the La Llorona Look

    As there are varying stories of La Llorona, she has varying appearances as well. Her appearance varies for a bevy of reasons, but one of the most significant factors is the type of story - origin or encounter. 

    In origin stories, La Llorona is typically described as a beautiful young woman. In Thomas Allibone Janvier's 1910 book, Legends of the City of Mexico, he writes that "She was the most beautiful woman in all of Mexico, muy hermosa, and she herself knew it too." Frances Door echoed this description of beauty in their 1947 book A Treasury of Mexican Folkways, "She was a pretty but humble maiden named Luisa." As a maid though, she likely wore clothes very standard for her class/time. An Oaxaca dress was likely her clothing of choice - knee to ankle length, with bright and vibrant colors/patterns all over.

Five Mexican women wearing traditional Oaxaca
dresses. Photo via photographer Marilyn Angel Wynn.

    Conversely, encounter stories are where the more "standard" depictions of La Llorona are seen. In encounter stories, she is seen in her ghostly form. Beyond her simply being a ghost, La Llorona's ghostly appearance is often left up for artistic interpretation when creating a film. However, it often yields extremely similar results. Due to the fact that she is the "weeping woman," bloody tears are often seen streaming down her face. She is often seen in a long white dress and veil too, as well as having ghost-white skin. Below are some of the ways this ghost form has been depicted in various movies:

The Haunting of La Llorona (2019). La Llorona is seen in 

a white wedding dress. She has cracked white skin, shadowy 

eyes, and bloody tears running down her face.

The Curse of La Llorona (2019). Similar to The Haunting

of La Llorona, she is seen in a white dress - but she wears a

veil in this version. Though both share white skin and bloody 

tears too, this version has fiery yellow eyes, as well as an 

extremely dark mouth.

La Llorona (2019). Unlike nearly all versions of La

Llorona seen in film/TV, this version is not a ghost.

She wears an all-white dress, but that is all. She

is characterized more by her actions/motivations

within the film rather than her appearance.