Perspectives on La Llorona: Individual personal accounts across generations...
Perspectives on La Llorona: Individual personal accounts across generations...
Interview 1 - Baby Boomer (2nd generation U.S. citizen/Borderland resident)
I first heard of La Llorona as a child from my paternal grandmother. The story goes that this woman had a lot of children, and I heard that she was crazy and she killed her children, she drowned them as I remember. After, she would go out at night looking for them and have this scary wail of crying and sorrow while looking for her children, and she carried fire or a lantern of some type. The part that was interpreted to me by my grandmother was that she was scary, she was crazy, and that she was probably looking for other children to kill. Later on as I thought about it, I figured it was a way to control your children... be good, stay home, and the Llorona wouldn’t get you. As I got older my interpretation was that she was obviously not well and if she did do that to her children she needed help, and I thought maybe she isn’t out to get other children but that she was so sorrowful about what had happened that she couldn't bear it so she traveled at night and this is her way of dealing with it. It was a very effective way of another cucui story trying to get children to behave the way their mothers expected them to. It was helpful to be able to hear that from my grandmother because it just enhanced our bond, when I think about it now, and her telling me she was kind of giggling at the same time. She was not trying to scare me it was just a story she used to tell her own children.
Interview 2 - Generation X (3rd generation U.S. citizen/Borderland resident)
I remember hearing the story of La Llorona when I was a little girl, probably about 10 or 12. We would talk about it with our friends. The story was about a lady with a wedding or white dress, with a veil on her face and she was scary, kind of like a monster, and something bad happened to her children, they died, and she was just this scary figure or monster that would get you. The story is that, she’s going to come for you if you don’t behave, because she comes after little kids, because she’s looking for her kids that died. My recollection is that you have to be good children and do what your parents tell you and then you won’t have this problem. I think that it depends who the message is to, if it’s to kids it’s about behaving yourselves or this lady is going to get you because her kids are gone and she’s going to come after you if you don’t behave, and she’s not nice, she’s a monster. As an adult I think it’s a way of helping your children behave, and of controlling your kids by telling them these stories of the past or folklore.