The Legend of La Llorona: Historical, Cultural, and Feminist Significance By: Alexia Tomio-Armorer

The Legend of La Llorona: Historical, Cultural, and Feminist Significance By: Alexia Tomio-Armorer About the author: Alexia Tomio-Armorer is currently in her fourth year of the Marine and Freshwater Biology program here at the University of Guelph. Although she is a Bachelor of Science student, she has always held a deep love and appreciation for the arts. After taking History and Culture of Mexico (HIST*3150) with Professor Karen Racine, her passion for exploring the world’s diverse cultures was reignited. From the legend of La Llorona, or “The Weeping Woman”, to tacos al pastor, Mexico’s rich culture and vibrant folklore will always hold a special place in her heart. 53 In the guttural and haunting voice of Chavela Vargas’ 1994 song “La Llorona,” resonate the words, “El que no sabe de amores, llorona, no sabe lo que es martirio [He who does not know about love, llorona, does not know what martyrdom is].”1 These words perfectly describe one of the most well- known and enduring myths in Mexican culture, the legend of La Llorona. She is a complex female figure that is very familiar in the Mexican psyche and similar to others such as the Virgen de Guadulape/Virgin of Guadalupe or La Malinche.2 The legend of La Llorona, a woman whose cries for the children whom she murdered are thought to be heard throughout Mexico and the United States, is above all a tale of love and suffering. These are aspects of human nature that resonate with all humans regardless of background. While there is large disparity in its origins and specific details, the common elements and themes allow the myth to be poignant for many people. The myth lends itself to interpretation by all who hear it and each individual can come to find their own meaning and relationship to it.3 The themes of societal expectations, gender roles, the battle between individual desire and familial obligations, as well the experiences of suffering, regret, and betrayal are universal. Thus, the legend of La Llorona is endlessly evolving and adapted by storytellers of different sexes, ages, socio-economic statuses, and ethnocultural backgrounds to reflect their own lives, experiences, and pyscho-social development.4 Each version of the story is a manifestation of one’s own hopes, anxieties, and fears, as well as a reflection of their primary life foci.5 This essay will examine the importance of the legend of La Llorona in Mexican, Chicanx, and non-native culture, specifically its historical, cultural significance and its role in feminism and pop culture, as well as how meanings evolve for different storytellers and audiences. Origins and Historical Significance The antiquity of the story is difficult to discern because La Llorona is reminiscent of similar female figures from folklore of other cultures.6 Early 20th century scholars posited that the legend is, in fact, not Mesoamerican at all, but European in origin. Others argue that it originates in the primarily Indigenous state of Oaxaca.7 In these versions, La Llorona is an Indigenous 1 Chavela Vargas, La Llorona, Turner Records, 1994. 2 Jacqueline Doyle, “Haunting the Borderlands: La Llorona in Sandra Cisneros’s “Woman Hollering Creek,”” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 16, no. 1 (1996): 53. 3 Domino Renee Perez, “Interludes and Encounters, La Llorona Redux,” Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas 43, no. 1 (May 2010): 112. 4 Pamela Jones, ““There Was a Woman”: La Llorona in Oregon,” Western Folklore 47, no. 3 (July 1988): 197. 5 Jones, “La Llorona in Oregon,” 210. 6 Michael Kearney, “La Llorona as a Social Symbol,” Western Folklore 28, no. 3 (July 1969): 199. 7 Ibid. 54 woman, lending credence to the theory that La Llorona is whoever the individual needs her to be in order to find meaning. The story is most beneficial and meaningful when audiences see themselves reflected in the character and so it is only right that La Llorona could be Indigenous also. In the region of Ixtepeji, Oaxaca, La Llorona is often equated with a similar figure in the area’s folklore, Matlaziwa.8 She has also been equated with Aztec goddesses Cihuacoatl, Coatlicue, and Tonanztin.9 La Llorona has been likened to La Malinche, the Aztec translator for Spaniard colonizers and lover of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547),10 and so La Llorona lamenting for her children and her own demise can be a metaphor for Spanish colonization and the fall of the Aztec empire.11 The most common version of the legend is an early fictitious adaption that has inspired many later versions and the oral tradition. In this version, La Llorona is Spanish, having been brought from Spain by her father and orphaned young. She lived a quiet, modest, virtuous life alone, surviving on her craft-making ability, until she is swept away by the rich Don Nuno, Marquis of Monte-Claros (1571-1628).12 La Llorona and their three children lived in a luxurious home but her beauty was not enough to keep his attention, as he soon abandoned her for a younger bride of his own class. In a fit of rage and to save them from the suffering that they could face as impoverished ‘bastard’ children, she murdered the children with their father’s dagger. Immediately after realizing what she had done, she ran into the streets screaming for her children and those are the screams that echo in Mexico today-in dark alleyways, in the wailing wind, across riverbanks, or in a bird’s song. Luisa was hanged and, ironically, Nuno suddenly died after his honeymoon. Over the years, many who claim to have seen La Llorona become very ill,13 as she induces overwhelming fear14 in her victims. Generally, she is either a temptress or bogeywoman that kidnaps children.15 8 Ibid. 9 Bacil F Kirtley, “La Llorona” and Related Themes,” Western Folklore 19, no. 3 (July 1960): 157. 10 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, “The First Sight of Tenochtitlán,” in The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, ed. Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson (London: Duke University Press, 2002), 99. 11 Betty Leddy, “La Llorona Again,” Western Folklore 9, no. 4 (October 1950): 365. 12 Y.H. Addis, “The Wailing Woman: “La Llorona,” a Legend of Mexico,” The Argonaut (March 10, 1888). Reprint, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers 36, no. 1 (2019): 132. 13 Leddy, “La Llorona Again,” 363. 14 Ibid., 365. 15 Patricia Marina Trujillo, “Becoming La Llorona,” Chicana/Latina Studies 6, no. 1 (Fall 2006): 100. 55 Cultural Identity The legend of La Llorona and other folktales has been passed down through oral tradition as reminders of lives lived long before one was born.16 Those who claim to have seen or been a victim of Llorona are also key to the transmission of the myth as it becomes a part of that family’s tradition and identity.17 There is also regional variation in the myth that leads to dispute about its origin. However, the legend of La Llorona is a powerful unifying force as an example of a character that is distinctly Mexican. Whether one believes in the tale or not it is central to Mexican cultural identity. There are several common themes in all versions of the myth, such as air, water, and sin, which have religious undertones. As La Llorona can be invisible and float or fly through the air, she is associated with air and spirits because those who are not accepted into Heaven by God are condemned to float though the air of earth. Thus, the air and outside can be surrounded with dangerous spirits.18 While the idea of spirits strays from the Catholicism, it aligns with the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration in which the souls of loved ones are said to walk the earth to reunite with their families.19 Many have argued that since La Llorona is sometimes depicted as mestiza [mixed race], she is representative of the “crossroads” of Mexican and American identity (Chicanx),20 as well as the mestiza Mexican nation itself is a hybrid of Spanish and Indigenous ethnicity and culture.21 The tale is also particularly relevant in Mexican culture because it is used as a disciplinary tool to elicit good behaviour from children. Parents and children have different renderings and memories associated with the myth as well.22 Some families have even resorted to making their own La Llorona figures to scare children who wander too far from home.23 The figures teach children of the dangers that exist outside of the home base, whether it is a physical threat such as a predator, or the lure of an unsafe lifestyle that goes against social and religious beliefs (i.e. drugs, alcohol, sex).24 By scaring children to the point where they may themselves become like La Llorona 16 Trujillo, “Becoming La Llorona,” 96. 17 Leddy, 364. 18 Kearney, 200. 19 Amy Fuller, “The evolving legend of La Llorona.” History Today, November 2015. 20 Jacqueline Doyle, “Haunting the Borderlands: La Llorona in Sandra Cisneros’s “Woman Hollering Creek,”” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 16, no. 1 (1996): 65. 21 Stephanie Serrano, “No More Tears: La Llorona at the Crossroads of Feminism, Postmodernism and Futurity in Chicana Theory and Criticism” (PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2009),7. 22 Jones, 195. 23 Trujillo, 104. 24 Rudolfo A. Anaya, “La Llorona, El Kookooee, and Sexuality,” Bilingual Review / La Revista Bilingüe 17, no. 1 (April 1992): 53-54. 56 through their wailing and tears,25 the legend acts as a powerful didactic tale because disobeying and straying from ideals can lead to trouble and danger.

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