ESL 225 W
Instructor: Mrs. Frampton
La Llorona in My Home
Everybody in Mexico knows the story of La Llorona, the crying woman. In this story, a mother loses her lover to another woman and in revenge kills her own children, drowning them, and then kills herself in desperation. The story of La Llorona has been told in all of Mexico. People say that she can be heard even today crying and moaning through the night. They say that since she killed her children, she is looking for children to replace the ones she lost. In my family, the story of La Llorona has taken on a life of its own.
My mother always told me how she saw La Llorona on her own roof and how she believes that La Llorona went to our house looking for a baby to take as her own. My mother told me that a long time ago when I was a little girl, we just had moved from Mexico City to Ensenada, Mexico, and one night after we had moved, my family threw a party to welcome us. The party was in our humble house, the roof of which was transparent plastic. My mother said that after the party and a great time with the family, it was very late for my uncles to go home, so they all decided to stay. All my uncles stayed in my uncle’s van, which was parked next to our little home, and my aunts Maribel, Ana, and Lupe and my mom stayed inside.
It was already past midnight when my Uncle Arturo came into the house. He was shocked and breathless, and he said that he had heard something and he wanted to check on us. My aunts and my mother did not pay attention to him because they were half asleep, but then they really woke up because of the loud noise that sounded like a coyote. My mother said that it was very loud, as if it were inside the house. It was getting louder and louder, and then it was like somebody was crying and crying. Then they head, “Ay, mis hijos. Ay, mis hijos” and everything got quiet. They were frightened, looking at each other in the dark room. They could not believe they had just heard La Llorona. Uncle Arturo decided to get up from the couch and lock the door or do something to protect us, but at soon as he got up, the lights started to go on and off, everything started to shake, and the moaning began again. “Ay, mis hijos. Ay, mis hijos,” and when they least expected it, a big black shadow appeared on the transparent plastic roof. My mother reached for the metal scissors and put them like a cross on the top of my head. She thought if she didn’t protect me with the metal scissors, La Llorona might take my soul. After that, the big black moaning figure left the roof, and everything got normal again, but everyone was speechless at what had just happened.
In the morning, my uncles, who had slept in the van, said that they had heard everything, but they had thought it was a bad dream. They couldn’t get out of the van because they were terrified and stuck inside. Now after years, no one has an explanation for what happened that night, but they do know they will never forget the day La Llorona visited our home.