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| La Llorona with her "Children" |
The legend of La Llorona (Spanish for The Weeping Woman), has been a part of New Mexico culture for hundreds and hundreds of years. The spirit was said to have been a beautiful, tall, and thin woman with long black hair who died and now roams the rivers, lakes, and ditches screaming and wailing in search of children to drag into the waters with her. The legend has many different forms but they all describe La Llorona in the same way and always have the same conclusion. Some believe the legend is true (I am one of them) and it has yet to be proven as a myth or the truth.
The Story - Maria, was born to a poor family in a small Santa Fe village. Her beauty captured the attention of all the men of the area. She was said to have spent her days in her village, but in the evenings, she would put on her best white gown and go out on dates with all the men of the village. Eventually she got married to a wealthy and handsome man by the name of Fernando who had a reputation of being an alcoholic, gambling, womanizer. He gave her all his attention and would spoil her with expensive gifts and soon, she gave birth to a son and a daughter. After some time, Fernando reverted to his old ways and would leave Maria and the children alone for months. A few months passed and finally Fernando came back to see her, not to check up on her, but to tell her that she meant nothing to him now and so that he could flaunt his new girlfriend in front of her. Maria went insane and later that day, went and drowned her two children in a nearby lake in a hysterical frenzy and played it off as an accident. After she killed her children she began to starve and neglect herself out of both anger and guilt. She began to look more ghost-like in appearance and her beauty was now overshadowed by blackened eyes, sunken cheeks, and white hair. The local police began to look more into this drowning "accident" as a murder and then went to arrest Maria, she escaped out the back door of her house when the sheriff arrived and went screaming and crying to the lake where she drowned her kids in hopes of bringing them back from their watery graves. Since her eyes were full of tears, her point of view was obstructed and she tripped and hit a large stone, she was dead... Not long after her death, her restless spirit began to appear, walking the banks of the Santa Fe River and ditches all throughout New Mexico when darkness fell. Her weeping and wailing became a curse of the night and people began to be afraid to go out after dark. She was said to have been seen drifting between trees along the shoreline or floating on the currents with her long white gown spread out upon the waters. On dark nights people would see her illuminated spirit walking along the riverbank and crying for her children. And so, they no longer spoke of her as Maria, but instead, La Llorona. Children and teens are warned not to go out in the dark because La Llorona might snatch them, throwing them to their deaths in the flowing waters. If one listens carefully out their window at night, they may hear her wails which is a sign of bad luck because it means that La Llorona is looking for them.
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