It is reported that she is said to cry, ¡Ay, mis hijos!, which means Oh, my children!...such is the disturbing legend of La Llorona ("The Weeping Woman")…it is a legendary ghost who has fascinated, and perhaps terrorized many…this story has been handed down for many years and although some just consider it to be an urban legend…others claim that it is chillingly true…it is a story that is quite prevalent in Mexican culture…now according to the tradition of the tale, La Llorona is the ghost of a woman who tragically lost her children…and now her ghost wanders about and cries while looking for them in a river… those that are near her, or hear her cries are said to often have misfortune themselves…there are numerous variations of the story but the basic story tells of a beautiful senorita by the name of María who intentionally drowns her children in a river as a means of revenge towards her husband…a husband who had left her for a younger woman…when she realizes her children are dead, she drowns herself in the river …the story goes on to say that when she is at the gates of heaven, she is questioned over the whereabouts of her children…thus, she is not permitted to enter the afterlife until she has found them...María is then forced to wander about the Earth for all eternity, in a vain attempt to find her drowned children...upset, she constantly weeps, which is why her nickname is ‘La Llorona’…it is said that sometimes Mexican parents will use this story to try to keep their children from wandering outside at night…in some versions of this story, La Llorona has been known to kidnap children who resemble her missing children… she will ask for forgiveness, and then drown the children…there are those who claim to have seen her and say that she appears at wandering by rivers or lakes…there are also some who believe those who hear the wails of La Llorona are marked for death, but there have been a few ‘escapees’…she is of the poor unfortunates that is caught between the living world and the spirit world…scoff if you will, but if you see a woman wandering about crying and looking for her children…take great care.
