Works Cited

Schlosser, S.E. “La Llorona.” American Folklore. 3 October 2012. Web. 24 October 2012. www.americanfollore.net

Ostrand, Maggie Van. “La Llorona: Does She Seek Your Children?” Texas Escapes. 10 August 2008. Web. 24 October 2012. www.texasescapes.com.

“ Aztec Public Library features ‘La Llorona’ folk tale.” Farmington Daily News. 19 October 2012. Newpaper. 24 October 2012. www.lexisnexis.com.

Weiser, Kathy. “Ghostly Legends and Mysteries La Llorona- Weeping Woman of the Southwest.” Legends of America. July 2010. Web. 24 October 2012. www.legendsofamerica.com

Walraven, Ed. Evidence for a Developing Variant of “La Llorona”. Western Folklore, 1991. Print.  

Conclusion

  

       Since the beginning of my tantrums as a young girl and misbehaving towards my parents, La Llorona became a common story everyone would advise me to remain in a good behavior and remember my manners or La Llorona will find where I am and take me along with all the other kids who are disobeying their parents. Now looking back on this old folktale, I remain skeptical on whether or not La Llorona really exists, and whether or not one is marked for death if we see the donkey faced woman who wails over night in search of her kids. More likely than not, the topic of La Llorona persists as one of those scenarios where one has to see or hear it to believe it. If I had to make a definite decision based on the information I have researched and heard the stories people have told, the old tale seems hard to believe, therefore, I believe this tale serves as a tale told to young kids especially, to reinforce their behavior to put them back on the right path. Despite my choice of belief, I do support those who inhabit the choice to believe in La Llorona. Everyone is uniquely different with different views, and with this, comes a variety of explanations to certain circumstances. In my personal point of view, the tale of La Llorona will linger for years to come, as it has served as an entertaining and suspicious story that will leave one in suspense and curiosity. 

Evidence

  

          If a reader would research the background of La Llorona and where she originated from, one would come to a conclusion that she most commonly flourishes among the Hispanic heritage. That being said, La Llorona's whereabouts are most commonly known to reside along the Rio Grande area, as this is known to be the location where La Llorona was said to have drowned her kids, as well as herself. Finding articles of evidence, such as sightings or simply hearing her cries, contained its difficulty. Ed Walraven explains that not only does La Llorona appear in traditional areas, but also she has made an appearance in "the streets of Chicago, and Mexico City, to railroad tracks, to juvenile hall." Walraven continues to add that further sightings reached areas from "the municipal landfill or city dump." Although Walraven reports this information, he goes on to explain that the city officials where the sightings were gathered from have no documentation or reports supporting this eyewitness information. Kathy Weiser provides detailed evidence of sightings among people who have encountered La Llorona at one point or another. Weiser beings to instruct two different scenarios where La Llorona has appeared to helpless victims, one of her two stories begins with a young boy by the name of Epifanio Garcia, who had unfortunately, engaged into a vicious argument with his parents, and fled the scene with his two brothers, Carlos and Augustine. On their way leaving Ojo de La Vaca and traveling towards the Villa Real de Santa Fe, La Llorona made an appearance between the seats of two of the brothers riding in the front seats of their wagon. Frightened by this alarming view, the three boys headed back to their hometown while listening to La Llorona say, “I will visit you again someday when you argue with your mother.” The second story prevails as a common spot where La Llorona has appeared. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the employees of the PERA building have reported hearing the “cries resounding through the halls and feeling unseen hands pushing them while on the stairways” (Weiser). Among these told stories are those of other victims who have had their encounters with this daunting woman.

Stories

Many of us have heard the tale of La Llorona throughout our childhood at least maybe once whether one may be of the Hispanic heritage or not. Although most know her as La Llorona, some refer to her as The Weeping Woman. The well-recognized folk tale of La Llorona seems to have its variation between different sources. Maria, as some speculate was her name, was a woman peasant woman but of high standards who, in time, meet a well-rounded nobleman who flowered her with gifts and surprises, this allowed him to represent his admiration and his love he held towards. Of course, Maria rejoiced the lavish gifts and attention she received from him. As time flew by, Maria bore two children with her beloved husband. All seemed to appear supremely excellent with two partners who loved each other unconditionally along with their three children until Maria noticed her partner starting to act unusually different. After Maria began to speculate, she was delivered fallacious news that oscillated her world upside down; Maria’s husband no longer wished to be with Maria any further. Although this nobleman no longer wanted to be with Maria, he indeed mentioned to Maria that he would like to continue being in their children’s’ lives and promoted to provided Maria with any necessity they would need. Not long after, Maria noticed her children’s father continue to focus unconditionally on his children and would always leave Maria out. Highly disturbed by her past husband’s actions, Maria went to great lengthens to remove the bond between her children and their father. One night, Maria took all three of her children to the river and drowned them all. Quickly after she drowned them, she realized the capacious crime she had committed and killed herself also. When Maria tried to enter God’s gates to heaven, he questioned her, asking, “ Where are your children?” (Ostrand) and she replied “ I don’t know my lord” (Ostrand), then the Lord commanded Maria to return to Earth and search for her missing children and return them to him or else she will be forbidden to enter his gates to heaven. From that day forward, Maria’s spirit floats up and down the rivers in search of her children. Legend says, if she hears children cry, disobey, or are out late at night, she will capture them and do as she did with her children. Patricio Lugan was just a boy when him and his family encountered La Llorona along the creeks of Mora and Guadalupita, New Mexico. Patricio and his family were lounging outside when “they saw a tall, thin woman walking along the creek” (Weiser). Stunned by this appearance along the creek, they set out to look for footprints leading up to the area where they had spotted her, but they found nothing and allowing them to believe they had spotted La Llorona.  Kathy Weiser wrote about the different locations La Llorona and they range from Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Southwest region, though not only does the South region report incidents of her, but as far as the Montana area as well.

Background

            Researching exactly who La Llorona was, where she originated from, and her undeniable, yet chilling story, remains a struggle to pinpoint. Different countries and locations such as, “Mexico, Texas, including New Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama” as explained on Texasescapes.com, withhold their unique story regarding the infamous La Llorona. Becoming a worldwide topic spoken amongst families and their children, the tale of La Llorona illustrates the importance about staying as far away as possible from any river. Americanfolklore.net provides two antithetic stories surrounding La Llorona, but with a segment of similarities. Version one portrays La Llorona as having children with a previous partner before meeting a rich nobleman, but being rejected as he “did not want to raise another man’s children” (Schlosser). Version two demonstrates her husband, a poor man much like herself, as the sinful person who denied his wife, La Llorona, of baring children as a result of their underprivileged lifestyle in the village. The similarity among the two versions positions in their conclusions, stating, La Llorona had been denied entrance into heaven without the appearance of her children. Prior to entering heaven, the Lord demanded she find her children and bring them along with her if she wished to be laid to rest.

            Farmington Daily News addresses the old Mexican tale by adding fascinating information stating, those who hear her cries throughout the evening and night or said to be marked for death. Comparable to the above stories from other sites, Farmington Daily News version of La Llorona stems equally from the other stories.    

Proposal

         As one may realize, Halloween has once again slithered its way into our next holiday. For this reason, I have conducted some research as to what exactly I wanted to blog about. After days of considering different topics, I have come up with my ultimate choice, which is La Llorona. As a young girl, my grandparents and parents would stress to me that if I cried at night, La Llorona would hear my cries and make her way towards me to take me away with her. Of course some people now would think about this as preposterous and absurd, but when one is young, fooling us does not come with a challenge. Although believing in Halloween tales seems to come with vague opinions, there are some valuable resources and articles, which could very well support some Halloween topics and generate the reader to reevaluate their opinions. After doing research over La Llorona, I have come across appealing information that spawns me to rethink about whether or not I believe La Llorona exists. In the blogs to follow, I will provide stories regarding La Llorona hoping to maybe guide a reader into a final decision.