La Llorona

It was about eight in the morning or something when I headed into the kitchen. My abuela and my mom were in the middle of conversation when I walked in.

“Buenos dias,” I muttered. It was too early for me to function properly.

“Good morning, mijo! Are you hungry?” asked my abuela. “I made some eggs with chorizo.”

I nodded and she began to serve me a plate. She looked like she remembered something when she set the plate down in front of me.

“Diana!” she exclaimed. “Guess what?”

“What, ma?” my mom answered.

“Do you remember Petra, your friend?”

“From secondary school? Yes, what about her?”

“You remember how she got married to Carlos Perez and then had two kids?” My mom nodded, and my abuela continued, “So I heard that she found out he was cheating on her. Petra had suspicions that whenever he went to the Texas to work, he was messing around with someone else. She said that he never wanted to fix the papers that would let her visit and never really gave a good reason why.”

“How do you know any of this?” asked my mom with a hint of bewilderment. I just continued eating my breakfast and listening to the story.

“Dona Lina from across the street told me most of this,” she answered, and my mom shook her head fondly.

“Of course,” she mouthed to me.

“Now let me finish. Turns out, Petra has a cousin in Texas and he kept an eye on him for her. That’s how she found out he had a girlfriend. She was devastated and just shut herself in. That poor thing couldn’t even take care of herself, so she sent her boys to live with her sister in California.”

“How old are they?” I interrupted. I couldn’t help it, but I was curious.

“They're four and seven. I know she must miss them. I mean I missed Diana when she left, then she visited and I remember all the things I used to get her in trouble for.”

“Ma!” I laughed at the joke and soon enough my mom began to chuckle as well.

“You know I love you,” replied my abuela. “Back to Petra. So Carlos found out that she knew and he hasn’t been back since. Petra’s sister hasn’t heard anything about him either, so he hasn’t tried to get in contact with the kids.”

“This is like some telenovela type drama,” I whispered, but my mom still heard me and somehow managed to look disapproving and amused by my comment.

“Poor Petra, she’s all alone now. Elizabeth, from the corner store, says that when she passes by Petra’s house, it’s either dead silent or she can hear someone crying inside. This is why you pay attention to who you marry, mijo.” She looked straight at me. “You never know who they can turn out to be. Also, if you ever fall out of love, mijo, let them know. Don’t go behind their back, it hurts so much more.”

I look at my mom and she just shrugs. “That is some pretty good advice, Rafa.”

“Cuida tu corazon,” said my abuela, “take care of your heart.”

“I will, abuela.” With that said, I left the kitchen to go play video games with my cousin Lety in her room.

Author's Note: In the original source, a small description of the story is given. A young woman marries a man and has children with him. When she finds out that he's seeing another woman, she drowns the children. The source covers mostly the haunting, which is what she is known for as she cries out for her kids. I modernized the story and got rid of the murders, because I did not think they would fit well in this setting. There are various interpretations of the story. There are some where she killed the children out of jealousy or spite. The one I heard was where he told her to kill the children or else he would leave her. In the end, I just kept the concept of the cheating/betrayal and the loss of her children. I hope that I achieved in changing this somewhat scary story by putting a tragic modern twist. I chose that personal image because I wanted to ensure that the characters could be visualized in a way that I want them to be. I also wanted to have one of the moral lessons be about love, because I think it’s such a common subject when it comes to advice. I felt that it fit the grandmother character well.

Bibliography: "The Legend of La Llorona" by Thomas J. Janvier from Legends of the City of Mexico. Website: Project Gutenburg