Weeping Women: La Llorona in Modern Latina and Chicana Lore

One of the most pervasive yet least studied figures in Latin American culture is La Llorona, the weeping woman. Doomed to wander riverbanks searching for her children, she is both cursed and revered, especially in Mexico and the U.S. borderlands but also throughout Central and South America. The legend tells of a woman who, after being betrayed by her husband, drowns her children in a river in a fit of rage and despair. Overcome with guilt and grief, she spends the rest of her days wandering the riverbank, crying out for her lost children.

La Llorona’s origins date to precolonial indigenous cultures. She is said to have been a celebrated goddess of fertility who was worshiped by the Aztecs. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, however, they sought to suppress the native religions and turned La Llorona into a symbol of sin and punishment. Her legend has been passed down for generations and has taken on many variations over time, from a ghostly figure to a vengeful spirit preying on children who wander too close to the water’s edge. The figure appears in literature, film, music, and pop culture media.

Weeping Women: La Llorona in Modern Latina and Chicana Lore is an illustrated mixed-genre anthology that brings together poets, researchers, artists, and storytellers from diverse backgrounds to examine the figure’s literal and metaphorical influence. La Llorona continues to be a popular legend in Latin America, but one in need of greater study in order to fully understand her cultural influence and importance.

Norma Elia Cantú is a Chicana scholar, fiction and nonfiction writer, and poet focused on the feminist, ethnographic stories of the U.S.-Mexico border. She is the author or editor of six books, including Cabañuelas, and the recipient of numerous awards. She is the Norine R. and Frank T. Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University and lives in San Antonio, Texas.