Legend of La Llorona

Throughout history, all cultures have had a series of characters related to terror or fear, being on many occasions stories that are used to scare the little ones, and whose origins can be traced back many centuries. To talk about one of the most interesting horror stories in Latino culture in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to offer a summary of the legend of La Llorona.

La Llorona is the name given to a ghost of Hispanic American stories whose stories for years have been passed from generation to generation. It is said that this ghost is the banshee of a woman who for unknown reasons killed his children drowning them in the water, after this already repentant and with an indeterminate curse she seeks her children by all means of possible water, such as rivers or seas, making in its search a terrifying cry that scares everyone who hears it or see.

One of the most interesting things about the history of La Llorona is that its passage through different Hispanic areas has made her story very different depending on the area where it is heard, existing dozens of different stories about the outcome of their children or their form after the death.

One of the examples of what this story can change is about the characteristics of women, Since depending on where the story is heard or who tells it, we can talk about a rich or poor woman, her or her ethnicity with names for her as well as for her husband and her children. This shows that a story that passes through many mouths can end up taking many different forms, making it difficult to remember the original story of La Llorona.

Other questions that change according to the story is the reason she killed her children, the place the events took place, the presence of water or not, there are even versions in which the murder is not committed by her, but someone else like her husband, some upper class or a spirit who kills the children of the Crybaby.

As for the functions for which the story of La Llorona has been used, we can talk about many, the most essential being that of scaring children, but it has also had others Stranger functions, such as warning men and women not to cheat on their partners, or as a collective symbol of groups that have been discriminated against by social class high.

Like all stories, the legend of La Llorona has a very ancient origin, although over the years and because the story has been distorted many times the original story was very different from the current one. To know the legend in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about its origins, and its evolution until the current stage.

The mythological creatures and ghosts who cry over watercourses as rivers have been very common throughout the history of humanity, having its origin in the aboriginal peoples of the cultures before the Hispanics.

exist three main theories about the true origin of La Llorona, the first being the one who thinks that the events really happened, the second who a real event joined an ancient myth creating the legend, and the third which is just a story with a certain symbolism.

It is thought that the origin of the legend was born in the prehispanic peoples and, more specifically in the goddess Auicanime, being a pre-Hispanic deity related to themes such as death, the underworld and lust. Other deities thought to have influenced the history of La Llorona are the Mayan goddess Xtabal, the Zapotec goddess Xonaci wave Mexica goddess Cihuacoatl.

After years of change, the legend of La Llorona changes completely after the arrival of the Spanish in America, being they who transform history to turn it into a true myth. It was the mix between aboriginal stories, those of pre-Columbian cultures and the stories created by the Spanish that created the so-called legend of La Llorona.

To conclude this summary of the legend of La Llorona, we must talk about the great similarities that exist between this legend and other stories that appear in cultures far removed from them. Some of the stories from other regions that are similar to La Llorona are the following:

• The legend of medea of the Greek mythology, who murdered her children after being abandoned by her husband.
• The Greek myth of Lamia, whose children had been killed by Hera, and who roamed the world eating other people's children.
• In the Christian religion we have the figure of Raquel, who mourns the death of her children as a representation of the exile of the Hebrew people.
• The banshee of the celtic mythology whose characteristic screeches marked the end of someone.
• The Yoruba people have a legend about a woman in the form of a wind who cries for the death of her children at the hands of the ocean.
• In the chinese legends there is a woman who cries lamenting throughout the Forbidden City.
• In the japanese legends there are ghosts called onryo, in some cases women similar to La Llorona.