La Llorona. A terrifying myth of Mexican culture. Photo / AP
In Mexico, legends and the cult of the dead proliferate through various celebrations throughout the year, one of the most terrifying being that of the crybaby which has transcended borders and has a privileged place in the imagination of various countries.
The legend of La Llorona He says he is a tall, thin spirit, who wears a white suit and wanders rivers and streams.s, crying in the night and looking for children to drag them to a watery grave.
Nobody really knows when the legend of La Llorona began or where it originated. Even if the stories vary from source to source, the common thread is that It speaks of the spirit of a doomed mother who drowned her children and spent eternity looking for them in rivers and lakes.
La Llorona. Brought to the cinema as one of the classics of horror films. photo / file
La Llorona: an extraordinary mystery
The legend of La Llorona begins with a woman named Maria, blessed with natural beauty, who is determined to marry only the most handsome man.
There are several versions of the legend, but the most popular one states that Maria courted her potential suitor appearing distant and difficult to conquer, But once the couple finally got married and had two children together, the young man’s thoughts began to wander.
In some versions, the farmer is unfaithful to Mary and, in others, he simply resents her emotional indifference towards the care she continues to give to her children.
His children drown and many versions of the story suggest that his death was deliberate and by his hand, before he drowned.. When Mary is denied entry to heaven without her children, she is forced to seek the waters for their remains in the afterlife.
In another colonial version, María gives birth to the children of a white Spaniard above her class and kills her offspring as an immediate reaction to his refusal to make her his wife.
La Llorona. She would have her grave in Guanajuato.
The mysterious tomb of La Llorona
There are several versions of the origin of the legend. The most popular date of the colonial period in Mexico, between 1521 and 1810. In the chronicles of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, “La Llorona” was an indigenous woman, mistress of a Spanish gentleman.
The woman ran away from home accompanied by her children – a boy and a girl – and took them to the river. There she killed them.
Recently, a piece of news has monopolized social networks, as Internet users have shared images of the alleged tomb of “La Llorona”.
According to the image that went viral, the tomb is located in the Hacienda Siete Reales, on the Guanajuato-Dolores Hidalgo highway. It is a monument that was erected so that the woman would stop frightening the settlers.
the crybaby The tomb of the woman who gave rise to the legend that went viral.
The crybaby in the movies
The story of La Llorona it was exploited and represented in Mexican popular culture and cinema throughout the 20th and 21st centuries; The 1960s saw the premiere of La Llorona, a Mexican film directed by René Cardona, which chronicles the experiences of a family haunted by the evil spirit of women.
More recently, in 2013, Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida introduced the theme of La Llorona as one of several “scary zones” used in the annual Halloween horror nights, with mazes, movies and spooky entertainment centered around Mexican legend.
Source: Clarin
