Blog entry 1.2 La llorona (the weepeing women)

Since I was a little boy my Grandparents and people around me talked about la llorona all the time. They said that if I cried at night before going to sleep, La llorona would come and get me because she was a women who did not like cry babies. They said that she wanders the forest, the rivers and streams crying and asking for her children. People assured of seeing her or hearing her cry many times but I never saw or heard anything so I decided to do a little research about her. The links below got my attention because they relate a lot to the stories I heard when I was a kid and because one of them relates this legend to the greek mythology too.
According to my research, La llorona was a beautiful women with a really long black hair and a white gown. Her name was Maria and her beauty would capture the attention of rich and poor men from the area. Eventually, Maria married a very wealthy man who lavished her with gifts and attention. After having two of his kids, he started to change, returning to a womanizing and an alcoholic life leaving her for months. He would comeback only to see his children but in Maria he had no interest any more. Maria was devastated and began to feel resentment toward her boys.  One day maria was walking with the boys in a shady pathway near the river when she saw her husband with another women. He stopped and talked to his children and ignored Maria. After seeing this, she went into a terrible rage, turning against her children throwing them into the river. As they disappeared she realized what she did and run down the bank to save them but it was too late. Maria broke down into inconsolable grief, running down the street and wailing. The beautiful llorona mourned them day and night.  She stopped eating and started walking and crying along the river bank hoping they would come back. Her gown became soiled and thorn. She grew thinner and looked like a walking skeleton until she died on the banks of the river. Long after her death her spirit began restless and began to wander the rivers and streams. Since then, people have been talking about her. They have seen her and heard her many times during the dark nights. People became afraid and warned their children not to go out at night. There has been some cases in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mexico and Central America about people seeing her. In the greek mythology her name is Lamis who had children with Zeus who forced her to eat her own children since she was only a mistress for him. This greek myth goes on in a very similar way to the one in the Americas.

www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.la_llorona