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Many versions of La Llorona's origin exist. Some describe a beautiful young woman in Mexico or New Mexico, who married or was seduced by a local man, by whom she had several children. The woman is sometimes given a Christian name; Sofia, Linda, Laura, and María are sometimes used. The man leaves her, sometimes for another woman, sometimes for reasons of employment, and sometimes just to be away from La Llorona and her several children. At any rate, La Llorona chooses to murder her children, almost always by drowning, either to spare them a life of poverty, to free herself to seek another man, or for revenge against their absent or stray father.

The tales vary mostly in the several motives they give to the mother and father for the murder. The version popular in Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas says that "La Llorona" drowned her children in the Rio Grande when she could no longer support them. On nights with a full moon, says the story, La Llorona can be heard crying near the river.

[edit] Texas In South Texas, however, the story of La Llorona is that of a beautiful young woman who attracts the attentions of a wealthy man's son though she is very poor. The lovers secretly marry and set up a household; they have several children. Unfortunately, a day comes when the young man's father announces that he has arranged a marriage for his son to a young woman within their social class (in many tellings, La Llorona is a Native American peasant maiden and her man leaves her for a Spanish lady). The young man tells his secret wife that he must leave her and that he will never see her again. She is driven mad by anger and a broken heart, and takes their children to a river where she drowns them to spite her husband. When her husband finds out he and several townspeople go to find her, but she kills herself before they can apprehend her. She goes to Heaven and faces the judgement of God. God asks her, "Where are your children?" to which she replies, "I do not know." God asks her three times and she replies with the same answer. God then damns her to walk the earth to search for her children. According to this tale, it is wise to avoid La Llorona, as she is known for drowning passers-by in an attempt to replace her dead children. Alternatively, right after she drowns her children, La Llorona realizes what she has done and, overwhelmed by grief and by guilt, she runs alongside the river trying to find her children, but never does, and she dies or disappears in her search for them.

Another popular version of the legend takes place sometime in 19th century. A beautiful young woman with two small children was living in the poorest section of Juarez, Mexico, the town across the border from El Paso. She was madly in love with a very rich man. He felt the same way about her, but he, having no interest in children, refused to marry her. So, late one night, the woman took her children to a bridge over the Rio Grande. In the dead of the night, she heartlessly stabbed her children and threw them in the river to drown. Still wearing her bloody nightgown, she went to her lover's home to show him the great lengths she had gone to be with him. The man, seeing her blood-streaked nightgown, was horrified and rejected her. Then, finally realizing the horrible mistake she had made, she ran back to the river screaming, crying, and tearing at her hair, desperately trying to save her children. But it was too late. The woman stabbed and drowned herself in the same river. The legend has it that as punishment for her unspeakable sins she was given the head of a horse, and was to wander the banks of the Rio Grande for all of eternity looking for her lost children.

In yet another Texas version of the story, La Llorona had several children from her first marriage. Her husband died and she was left lonely. Soon she met a suitor who swept her off her feet. He promised her a wonderful life together, but only if she agreed to get rid of her children. After much soul searching the woman decides to follow the man in a new life together and drowns her children in the Rio Grande. After a few months the suitor grows tired of La Llorona and leaves her for another woman. Realizing that her selfish actions brought about the end of those who truly loved her, she dies in grief with her soul eternally looking for her long lost children.

In another variant, La Llorona is a naive but innocent woman forced into a shotgun wedding with the father of her child; in this case, it is La Llorona's father or her husband who kills the children. La Llorona attempts to stop the murders, and dies in the attempt.

[edit] Mexico Another version of the story of La Llorona is told in Mexico. she lived in Tequila, Jalisco. She went to get her fortune told, and was told that she was going to die, and so were her children. That same night, while they were sleeping, a big storm hit their village, causing the river to overflow its banks. The house was swept away by the flood, and all of her children died. La Llorona went on a journey to find her children, following the river, but died without ever seeing them again.

In southern Mexico specifically the state of Guerrero, La Llorona was a prostitute. She would abort some children and throw them in the nearby river of Tecpan. After having done this for many years, she died and legend has it that God told her she would never enter Heaven until she brought him all the children she had killed. So God ordered his angels to dress her in a white dress and send her to find her children. So she wanders the rivers of the Earth looking for her drowned children.

Generally, La Llorona becomes a sort of banshee. Her restless spirit walks abroad at night, crying "¡O hijos mios!" or "¡Ay mis hijos!" (O my children!) if not "¿Donde estan mis hijos?" (Where are my children?) or "Has visto a mis hijos?" (Have you seen my children?), the later options and variants being used before it reveals its ghostly nature to the victim leading to the victims death. Those unlucky enough to see or hear her are marked for death themselves. Sometimes she is dressed all in white; other times, in black. She is weeping, and in some tellings her eyes are empty sockets or in death she has been reduced to only a skeleton. Accounts of sightings in Texas tell of an eerie figure with a woman's body but the head of a horse. The New Mexican La Llorona hunts after children; some say that she drowns them in the river.

[edit] Southern California The story also may change based on the location of the tellers. For example, the story told in a seaside town with no river may have the children drowning in the surf. This story however goes that her children disobeyed her and she punished them and then during there punishment they disobeyed her again only this tijme she took them and drowned them in a local river, there after she drowned both of them and realized wut she has done and regreted it. the towns people heard what she had done and burned her and her spirit wqas banned form heaven until she finds her children again. she is sometimes seen along any water waysaying"ay mis hijos" or oh my children or even"onde estan mis hijos" were are my children!? many people who have claimed some one or even themselves have seen La Llorrona believe they are marked for death.

[edit] Guatemala In Guatemala, La Llorona's legend doesn't change much. It adds the scary trait that her wail, when heard as if from far off, announces the proximity of the ghost, when heard as if it's nearby, then the ghost is far away. This bears superficial resemblance to the sounds made by the kikik from Filipino folklore.

Some stories say that la Llorona was a criolla (one of unmixed Spanish descent) that was the wife of a wealthy Spaniard. In one of his trips, she falls in love with a poor mix-raced man and she becomes pregnant. She drowned her baby to hide the affair, and was damned for it.

Among the other attributes in these traditions are that she only materializes near a source of water, which may be any such as a pond, lake, or even pila (laundry tank). It is mostly men who witness or encounter her ghostly figure; some have said that a man who encounters her goes insane or develops a critical mental trauma. Entire towns have supposedly heard her horrendous cry.

[edit] Honduras and El Salvador The Weeping Woman has also been said to roam around rivers in Honduras in Central America. Witnesses say she was last seen in the city of San Pedro Sula, where she drowned small children from a public school.

[edit] Panama In Panama La Llorona is the most popular folktale of the country. The Panamanian version is called "La Tulivieja". According to the Panamanian legend, La Tulivieja was a beautiful young woman married to an important businessman. The couple had one little child. The husband prohibited his wife to go to parties and ordered her to stay home to care for their son. One weekend in a neighboring village there was to be a big party. The woman took advantage of the fact that her husband was away on business and decided to go to the party. She took the baby with her, but left him under a tree near a river. She thought that it was a safe place to leave the baby while she was dancing. That night a terrible storm hit the village. When she returned for her child the baby was not under the tree. She began crying and looking for him, following the river. God was angry with the woman for her irresponsibility and turned her into an ugly woman with holes in her face, chicken feet and a long hair that covered the front of her body. According to the legend she appears in the towns or cities that are near rivers. In the Panamanian countryside, many people who live near rivers insist they have heard the cry of "La Tulivieja". Also, in the capital there are also stories of people who claim to have seen the horrible woman, especially in the east

[edit] Function of the story in society Typically, the legend serves as a cautionary tale on several levels. Parents will warn their children that both bad behavior and being outside after dark will result in a visit from the spirit. The tale also warns teenage girls not to be enticed by status, wealth, material goods, or by men making declarations of love or any promises too good to be true. Some also believe that those who hear the screams of La Llorona are marked for death.

[edit] Comparisons to figures in other cultures and with historical persons The most direct analogue with the La Llorona story is that of the Greek Medea, who likewise murdered her children after being abandoned by Jason, although Medea showed little remorse. Local Aztec folklore possibly influenced the legend; goddess Cihuacoatl or Coatlicue was said to have appeared shortly prior to the invasion of Mexico by Hernán Cortés, weeping for her lost children, an omen of the fall of the Aztec empire.

La Llorona is also sometimes identified with La Malinche, the Native American woman who served as Cortés' interpreter and who some say betrayed Mexico to the Spanish conquistadors. In one folk story of La Malinche, she becomes Cortés' mistress and bears him a child, only to be abandoned so that he could marry a Spanish lady (though no evidence exists that La Malinche killed her children). Aztec pride drove La Malinche to acts of vengeance. In this context, the tale compares the Spanish invasion of Mexico and the demise of indigenous culture after the conquest with La Llorona's loss.

Folklore from wider Europe has also added to the legend. Tales of banshees and other female spirits whose wails presage death have influenced the story, and La Llorona's association with pools and rivers links her with water-nymphs like the Nix, Lorelei, the Sirens and Melusine. European ghost lore is full of hauntings by women clad in white, they may be restless spirits seeking help for some wrong they have suffered or who are damned to a twilight existence reliving the tragedy of their lives. The European lore may have originated from ancient Teutonic myths of white-clad female elves and wise women ancestors (weisse frauen in Germany, witte wieven in Holland, dames blanches in France). There are also similarities with the Biblical Massacre of the Innocents, which the Gospel of Matthew likens to "Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted."