Mystery: La Llorona

 

This story is dedicated to my dear friend Fatima. Thanks for being who you are; I hope to remain your friend for as long as God permits it.

Witches cackle, spectres sneak by you in the dead of night, the Headless Horseman lets loose a maniacal laugh, and the dead rise from their grave to dance beneath the Moon’s pale light. It’s that time of the year again: Halloween.

On this special night, we find ourselves snuggled up inside thanks to a terrifying pandemic—though I’m sure some of the ballsier folks are out trick-or-treating. If you are, do stay safe and make sure to social distance by at least six ghouls. For the rest of us, let’s flick the lights off and sit in a circle as we go over some ideas I had in mind before getting to the main story itself.

The first story I had in mind was that of the Zodiac killer. I found myself unwilling to dedicate that much time to covering him just yet. It also didn’t help that my friend Jif ended up covering him for his YouTube channel—the Debunk File—so I instead opted to cover Jack the Ripper. I’m quite proud of the end result actually, so go check it out. Mine that is. You can check out Jif’s video later.

The next story I had was the Butcher of Mons, another serial killer who lives up to his name. He dismembered his victims with terrifying skill. This story was the one that fit the idea of Halloween the best and it was one that I was eager to cover. Heck, it was once on the shortlist for this year’s Decemystery. However, thanks to the story being a bit on the complex side—along with me having covered a serial killer last year for Halloween—I opted to put it off until sometime next year. Well, at least I hope to cover it next year. Don’t hold me to that, you and I both know how awful I am with schedules.

The second idea I had was one of my personal favorites: Programmed to Kill. A conspiracy theory centering on the idea that the CIA and other Deep State ghouls “program” serial killers to, well, kill, this theory has been on my to-do list for a long time now and I simply haven’t had the time to go through all 300+ episodes of the YouTube series. I hope to get to it before 2023 though (yes, I like to look ahead in the way of what I want to write about—fight me). If I don’t get to it by then, you can rightfully scold me.

The third and final idea was that of Die Glocke. Never heard of it? Well, I’ve got three words for you: time traveling Nazis. This story was extremely close to being the Halloween story, but I simply didn’t find it to be all that scary. Sure, Nazis are quite scary, what with their incredible military strength and genocide under their belt. Though the idea of a time traveling device that sent someone back in time to potentially have crashed in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania didn’t exactly scream “Halloween” to me. So I put it off for a short while.

After that, I was left adrift without a story for Halloween. I contemplated covering the Hinterkaifeck Murders, but ultimately found myself unmotivated to tackle something so morbid—not to mention something where the information felt very muddled beneath legends, rumors, and hearsay. I also had the idea for the Villisca Axe Murders, but that’s a story I would rather pair with Hinterkaifeck due to their close relation. So yet again, I tossed it aside for sometime in the future. Not long after I did that, I was outright contemplating doing nothing for Halloween other than remaining indoors until the Ghost Adventures Halloween special was ready. Then I realize that was scheduled for October 29th, so I was left defeated by the power of television airdates.

So, after some time of wallowing in self pity, I came up with an idea; one that I got from a little friend of mine had reminded me of a certain legend from Mexico not too long ago. It’s an extremely famous one that found its way into the universe of the incredibly successful Conjuring series. So, for this year’s festive write-up, let us take a look at the infamous La Llorona. If you’re unfamiliar with this tale, you likely know it as the “Weeping Woman”. I think it fits perfectly with the theme and feeling of Halloween. So let’s get paranormal, dear reader, and see if there is any truth to this legendary legend—redundancy be damned.

The Story

Also known as “the wailer” alongside the “weeping woman”, La Llorona is one of the most famous ghost stories in Hispanic folklore—though there’s almost certainly a story like her in any culture. Alas, we’ll be focusing on this one because it’s the one I’m the most familiar with.

The story is very simple, though there are a few variations to it. I’ll convey one version that’s told on the Wikipedia page for La Llorona though. In this version, a woman by the name of Maria marries a wealthy individual and has two children with him. However, one day, she sees him with another woman and, in her rage, drowns their children. Like most acts committed during an act of anger though, she ends up regretting it and subsequently drowns herself, but is unable to move on from this world due to her actions.

It’s a tragic tale that utilizes the theme of regret in a very age old way (though I guess that’s not surprising given the story is quite old itself). Though like any legend, it extends beyond the story itself and into the real world. Indeed, it is that La Llorona’s terrible fate will befall anyone who meets her out near a body of water. What exactly she will do to those unlucky enough to encounter her varies, but these are the claims that I’ve heard in my life:

#1: La Llorona will kill you. I’ve heard some say she’ll drown you or that she’ll rip you apart. Like many other urban legends (such as Skinned Tom—who we may cover some time in the future), the method in which the entity will kill you varies based on the region you hear it in or who’s telling the story. As such, I won’t go over the fifty different methods in which a crying ghost will make your family cry.

#2: La Llorona will simply scare the living daylights out of you. Given that it’s a ghost, it’s likely that her appearance is something out of a night terror, but exactly what said appearance is like is something I cannot put into words. So I instead imagine a decaying corpse in a veil or something like that.

#3: La Llorona will try to lure you to her. This leads to one of the two above or something else entirely—like you following her cries until you starve or something else. This reminds me a great deal of how Fleshgaits try to lure you into the forest so they can kill you (although they mimic  the cries of a baby).

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that there are more variants, but those are the ones that I know. So from there, the legend basically just follows a traditional format of having no clear conclusion. It’s but the story of a tormented soul who is trapped in this plane of existence. A somber, harrowing tale of a woman who committed an act of evil and now suffers for her sins.

Strangely enough: stories like that are by no means uncommon. There are a ton of urban legends of mothers who have thrown their babies off of bridges and then thrown themselves, only to later haunt said bridge. Though with La Llorona, the legend spread quite a bit from Mexico and other Hispanic countries to other nations such as the United States. Remember, if you want your story to take off in the States, make sure it involves dead kids. You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. America has a thing for stories where people die. I think it’s why so many of our urban legends involved teenagers getting mutilated.

Anyways, let’s get back onto the topic of La Llorona. Given that I’m talking about the story on a blog dedicated to unsolved mysteries, conspiracies, and other things that could be deemed “mysterious”, we must now ask the question: have people seen the infamous weeping woman? Well, dear reader, the answer to that question is a resounding, thunderous, cataclysmic “yeah”.

If you’re to go and Google “La Llorona sightings”, you’ll be met with some searches that, surprisingly, claim to document real life encounters with the infamous wailing woman. Now, I won’t go over them in detail—I don’t really have the time given my schedule (my apologies)—but most of them follow a similar pattern. They either contain footage with audio of that sounds like a wailing woman (no joke intended there) or include a simple account from someone who heard La Llorona. It’s not unlike a story you’d hear on the television show “Ghost Adventures” or any other paranormal show (Ghost Hunters, Ghost Nation, and so on).

So what else is there to really discuss? Well, there really isn’t much else. La Llorona’s story—as a mystery—isn’t exactly breaking new ground in the way of paranormal mysteries. So rather than sit here and ramble, I think it’s best if we conclude our story and mozy over the theories section. Come, dear spectral reader, let us continue onward!

Theories

1. It’s but a mere legend

The first theory is that La Llorona is a spooktacular legend whose prevalence has led folks who are on the younger side to believe that she lurks among us. Indeed, the first theory is a buzzkill for a holiday such as Halloween, but does that mean you can’t believe in her? Well, technically, no, but you’d be disappointed if you went out looking for her.

Given that this is the theory that most skeptics subscribe to, you don’t have to really look far to see why they buy into it. There’s no concrete proof for La Llorona’s existence—at least not beyond the testimonies of a few people. So in essence, this theory treads the same ground that a great many other theories like it have in the past. While I’d hate to sound lazy: if you’ve read a write-up by me, you’ve likely heard this stuff before. So let’s just move on.

2. The weeping woman is real; let us all weep!

Our second and final theory is that La Llorona is in fact real. What proof is there? Well, there isn’t any—not directly anyways. Instead, you’d have to go off of the claims from those who say they’ve seen her.

Indeed, you’re stuck with hearsay. You see, like any other ghost story, there are only the accounts from those who say they’ve seen/heard her. While I’ve had my own paranormal experiences, I can at least say that I believe in ghosts, but I take any secondhand account with a massive grain of salt. Most skeptics and some other believers do too, so like most other paranormal mysteries and cryptids, you have to makedo with what a friend of a friend told their friend’s friend.

My Take

The story of La Llorona is, in my personal opinion, one of the most iconic and creepy urban legends out there; a tale as iconic as “The Hook” I’d say. If you’re unfamiliar with that story, a young couple are at a lover’s lane when they hear about an escaped killer who has a hook for a hand thanks to having lost his, well, hand. As the two prepare to make out, the girl hears scraping near the car and gets scared. Long story short, they drive off and when the guy goes to let his lady friend out, he discovers a bloody hook on the passenger side door handle.

Is the story true? No, of course not, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining in my eyes. It’s a great campfire story from times of yore. Though what does La Llorona have to do with that? Well, just like that story, I don’t think La Llorona is real. Rather, I think it’s simply an urban legend. WIth that said, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for a ghost to haunt a body of water—or near one—and thus embolden the belief in the legend itself. After all, if something appears similar enough, odds are you’re going to associate it with something that’s much more well-known.

Now, at the same time, I will concede that I think it’s possible that La Llorona is real. Yes, while I know that may seem insane, I think that legends originate from somewhere (I’ve said this many times on this blog). Likewise, I think it’s possible that the wailing spirit of a woman who drowned her children could very well exist somewhere and it helps to catapult what we now know as La Llorona into the mainstream/public’s eye. Though as is the case with anything like this, I would advise that you not take my word as gospel. This is, of course, just my take. It should be treated as nothing more than that.

Conclusion

Although this story has been posted in the morning (yes, I finished it days earlier: fight me), I hope that your Halloween is a wonderful one. While I’m by no means a fan of the holiday, I imagine that most of my readers are and as such: I would like to encourage you to stay safe, happy, healthy, and all of that other stuff. Enjoy gorging yourself upon the sweets you get from trick-or-treating and/or watching a good horror movie. Until next time, allow me to laugh into the dark of the night. Wooohahahaha—this is cringe.