The Legend of
La Llorona
By J’aime Rubio
Perhaps one of the most recognized legends in Mexican culture and the
American Southwest is the story of La Llorona. The earliest version of the
fable speaks of the Aztec Goddess Cihuacoatl, who took the form of a
beautiful, almost angelic lady in white, similar to ancient tales of “Les
Dames Blanches” in France. Throughout the night she cried out in her
native tongue, which in Spanish translated to, “Hijos mios…ya ha
llegado vuestra destruccion. Donde os llevare?” Or in English meaning,
“Oh my children…your destruction has arrived. Where can I take you?” As
superstitions arose, many felt that Cihuacoatl was warning her people of
the future destruction that the Spaniards would bring in their conquest of
Mexico.
Other versions tell a more personal account of the devastation a mother
feels when losing her child. Long ago, a native woman fell in love with a
Spanish soldier. He showed her affection and won her over by promising
that he would marry her. However, he only used her for his sexual
advances. Later when she became pregnant he fled. She gave birth to a child
and faced the ridicule of giving birth out of wedlock, which was a “mortal
sin” in the culture of her small village.
Many stories tend to differ at this point, where some say that the village
wanted her to give up her child to the church, so she fled into the
mountains. She wraps the child up and leaves him or her in the cave, to go
find the baby’s father. When she finds him, he tells her he loves her but that
he doesn’t want to have any children. She goes back to the cave distraught,
only to find blood everywhere, but no baby. She goes back to the cantina to
tell the father, but finds him in the arms of another woman. She then leaves
and wanders off into the wilderness, eventually killing herself or dying of
sadness.
In another version, when she first finds the man at the cantina with another
woman. The man adamantly denies ever loving her or having ever met her
before. Out of hurt, jealousy and possibly temporary insanity she takes her
baby and drowns it in the lake that now Mexico City lays on top of. As the
story goes, she eventually dies but even in death she faced the agony and
torture of roaming the land eternally, especially any area with waterways or
lakes, searching for her lost child.
This is where the legend comes to Maricopa.
“The story as my mom told us was a lady who drowned her two kids and
her ghost comes out at night crying or wailing,” said lifetime resident
Laureano Ochoa Rivera. “It was for moms to scare their kids from staying
out past dusk. Saying come home before dark because La Llorona will get
you and drown you. So for us growing up in Maricopa we had no lakes
or rivers so we didn’t worry much but if we were playing near a canal or
ditch we would sure as hell run home before dark.”
Looking out at the Santa Cruz Wash under a full moon, perhaps you
might see a wandering figure...and in the still of the night, you too may
hear the voice of La Llorona.