La Llorona ("The Weeping Woman") is a widespread legend in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Central America. Although several variations exist, the basic story tells of a beautiful woman by the name of María killing her children by drowning them, in order to be with the man that she loved. When the man rejects her, she kills herself. Challenged at the gates of heaven as to the whereabouts of her children, she is not permitted to enter the afterlife until she has found them. María is forced to wander the Earth for all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her the name "La Llorona".
In some versions of the tale, La Llorona kidnaps wandering children, or children who disobey their parents. People who claim to see her say she comes out at night or in the late evenings from rivers or oceans in Mexico. Some believe that those who hear the wails of La Llorona are marked for death, similar to the Gaelic banshee legend. She is said to cry "Ay, mis hijos! Ay, mis hijos!" which translates to "Oh, my children!"
In another version, she is out when her children are kidnapped, murdered, and thrown in the Santa Fe River. In grief she kills herself. When she reaches the pearly white gates, God asks her where her children are. Since she doesn't have them she can't enter the afterlife, so she is forced to wander the earth for eternity. She is said to claim any children wandering near the river at night. She puts her long, bony fingers on the child's shoulder and says,"Aquí están mis hijos," or in English ,"Here are my children."
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Typically, the legend serves as a cautionary tale on several levels. Parents will warn their children that bad behavior will cause La Llorona to abduct them,[1] and that being outside after dark will result in her visitation. The tale also warns teenage girls not to be enticed by status, wealth, material goods, or by men making declarations of love or lavish promises.
La Llorona bears a resemblance to the ancient Greek tale of the demonic demigodess Lamia who had an affair with Zeus. Hera, Zeus' wife, learned of the affair. Hera then forced Zeus to give up the relationship and punished Lamia by forcing her to eat her own children. Out of jealousy over the loss of her own children, Lamia preys upon human children and devours them if she catches them.[2][3][4] In Greek mythology, Medea killed the two children fathered by Jason (one of the Argonauts) after he left her for another woman.
Local Aztec folklore possibly influenced the legend; the 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 Nahua 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 bore him a child, only to be abandoned so that he could marry a Spanish lady (although no evidence exists that La Malinche killed her mokosos). 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.