La Llorona: The Weeping Woman
Mythic Figure Throughout Time and Region
La Llorona is a female figure represented in widely varying Mexican and Chicano myths.
The myth of La Llorona is believed
to have originated from later variants of the Aztec fertility goddess named Coatlicue.
In Spanish, llorar means “to cry.” Thus, La Llorona is the “Weeping Woman.”
She is crying for the lover who has abandoned her, the children she has drowned,
and even the conquest and domination of her country.
A common tale of La Llorona is one in which she bears the children of her lover,
only to be abandoned by him for a woman of his own high rank. La Llorona,
in a fit of rage, revenge, and/or insanity, drowns her children in the river,
and is then doomed to roam eternally, weeping, looking for her dead children --
or perhaps ones to replace them. La Llorona is often used by parents to “coerce
obedience from misbehaving children” because she is searching for other children
to murder (Candelaria 93-96).
The poem “Tu Canto,” by Rina García Rodríguez, illustrates the power that the myth of La
Llorona can have on children:
Your nails, uncared for
scratch boards and windows
of disobedient children
trying to find
some small space
to extend your hands and pull at their feet
in the bed where they embrace their dreams
from foot to head
they are trembling with skin shivering
all curled up
terrified on hearing your shrill cries
they ask the Virgin
to let them sleep in peace.
La Llorona also seeks to kill other women out of jealousy and to “seduce or kill men out of spite” (Carbonell 54).
Differing versions abound, but recurrent themes of La Llorona dressed in white, wandering near water while wailing for her
dead children usually remain constant.
La Llorona cannot be understood without taking into account the “virgin-versus-whore paradigm,” made well-known by
Octavio Paz, wherein women are represented as either “safely passive or dangerously active” (Carbonell 56). Figures such
as La Virgen de Guadalupe are elevated to saint status as pure, virtuous females that all women should strive to emulate.
In contrast, La Llorona is negatively portrayed as a “selfish, treacherous,
and destructive figure” (Carbonell 56). In many versions of the myth,
La Llorona is punished not only for her impure actions and resultantbastard
children, but also for the “selfish“ sins she commits in a moment of hysteria.
She goes against social norms and is trapped in a purgatory-like state,
forever charged to wander aimlessly, crying over her sins, which is
strikingly reminiscent of “Christian models of repentance” (Carbonell 56).
However, La Llorona can also serve as a symbol for female resistance
and cultural resistanceagainst a patriarchal society, conquest, and colonialism.
Many versions of the legend involve a man who leaves La Llorona for a woman of
higher social status. Carbonell argues in“La Llorona to La Gritona,” that her actions, when viewed in the context of an
“unjust race, class, and gender hierarchy of colonial Mexico,” give her a “social reason” for her deeds and push the blame
for the tragic outcome of events from her to her male counterpart. (Carbonell 56).
The act of infanticide committed by La Llorona can also be directly blamed upon invading Spaniards, made devastatingly
obvious in some versions of the myth that continue to be told. One such version, mentioned by Lomax-Hawes in “La Llorona
in Juvenile Hall,” is representative of the cruel treatment of Indians in colonial society and the despair many felt:
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they were impressed by the
beauty of the Indian children. The Spanish took the children and
gave them to their wives. Some of the Indian women killed their
children in order to keep the Spaniards from taking them. La
Llorona is one such woman. She is now searching constantly for
her children, whose faces she sees in all children. She kills the
children to be united with her own again.
Rather than abandon their children to the cruelty of the Spaniards, Indian mothers chose to escape their own helplessness
over the situation by deciding their children’s fates themselves. Thus, La Llorona can be interpreted as a resistant,
protective, maternal figure who reacted to social injustices imposed upon her by the unbalanced colonial system of
domination and power.
This is similar to José Limón’s complex interpretation of La Llorona, in which he argues that she exists at two levels. Not
only does she appeal to the “Utopian longing” of the nation as a rebellious symbol challenging class hierarchy, but also as a
“positive, contestative symbol” for women (400).
José Limón argues that La Llorona can be viewed as an opposition to the patriarchal attempts to control female behavior
with the “virgin-versus-whore” extremes of ideological manipulation. In some versions of the myth, blame can indirectly be
placed on the man. His own actions deem him the “whore,” responsible for the subsequent deaths of his murdered children
“as a consequence to his prostitution” (Limon 416).
It is interesting to note that certain versions of La Llorona placing blame on males have been closely associated with some
tales of La Muerte, wherein attractive women tempt men late at night.
Glazer’s summary of this folklore even points out that different regions call
this personage of La Llorona different names: she is la Xtabay in Yucatan,
La Muerte in South Texas, and la Matlasiwa in Mexico (Glazer 117).
In these tales, a mysterious woman, often in a long white dress, appears
to tempt or otherwise attract the man of the story. Upon closer inspection,
he discovers she is actually an ugly old hag or withered skeleton, resulting in
a state of fright or shock, sometimes ending in death. Most obvious are the
superficial similarities between these tales through the portrayal of the women
as seductresses in white dresses, actively searching out males. But also, as
Glazer argues, tales of La Muerte serve as models for men who are “bound by
moral standards of marital fidelity” because the recurring theme places the
blame on the man who is punished as a result of his innappropriate attraction
to women other than his wife (119).
The myth of La Llorona can also be interpreted as a literary rebellion to a male-dominated society,
especially in the sense that it is usually women who continue to tell this story, therefore “controlling this expressive
resource” (Limón 417). Chicana and Mexicana authors have continued to reinvent and adapt the
figure of La Llorona into an unmistakably assertive source of strength and hope.
Most notable among them are Gloria Anzaldua, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Sandra Cisneros.
For example, in Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek,” she transforms La Llorona from a weeping
victim to a “hollering, resourceful figure” (Carbonell 67).
Legends of La Llorona continue to exist in many varied forms throughout expansive regions.
The different meanings and versions of the myth of La Llorona will continue to evolve with society, constantly changing
their meaning and medium. Regardless of her form, it is quite clear that La Llorona will remain, lingering in people‘s
thoughts and stories.
Here are some more links to sites about La Llorona and Chicana authors:
http://www.literacynet.org/lp/hperspectives/llorona.html
http://www.lallorona.com/La_index.html
http://www.theoutlaws.com/ghosts3.htm
http://www.lasmujeres.com
Cortes and Monteczuma Dicovering Myths of Characters and
|
Coca and its Ritual Uses The Myth of the Evil Leaf, a Look at the Use of Coca |
|
She wails for her land, her people, her children
|
HealingThe myth of the Violent Shuar
|
|
Her Miraculous Appearance in Latin America
|
And the blood flowed like a river
|
. 
