The Crying Woman

She will stop at nothing to find her children, even taking yours.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good evening, listeners. So tonight I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to tell a story and then discuss the main subject. Remember, if you like what you're hearing, subscribe and tell your friends. I'm on Substack and Buzz Sprout. So without further ado, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And shh it's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello, my name is Maria, and I live in a small village. I'm not rich with money, but I am the prettiest girl in my village. I don't say that out of vanity, but rather because it's true. All the boys want to date me, but I'm not interested in them. They're too immature. There's an older gentleman who buys fruit from my fruit stand every Saturday. He likes me, I can tell. This gentleman is very wealthy. It would be wonderful if he would take me away from here. I could live like the rich people who are always coming to my fruit stand with their nice cars and nice clothes. I want that. I'm tired of being poor. It takes him a couple months, but he finally asks me for a date. We go on a very romantic picnic. After six months of dating, he asks me to marry him. I'm so happy, as is my family. It's not long and I will give him a son. Soon after our son is born, I'm pregnant again. I have another boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

We are so happy for now.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

After four years, my husband starts a new business in another town. We're happy because of course this means more money. However, it isn't long before my husband is staying in this new town longer and longer, sometimes even weeks, until one day he doesn't come home at all. I worry, thinking, is he dead? Where is he? The boys cry for their father, and I cry for my husband. I'm letting myself go, my hair isn't brushed, I'm not washed, I'm depressed, I'm losing my mind. One day as the boys and I are walking a trail by the river, a horse-drawn carriage passes by. I look into the carriage, and who do I see? My husband. But who is with him? Who is she? She's so much younger than I am. She's beautiful. They're holding hands and laughing. No, no, he's mine.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

He needs to pay. He needs to hurt the way he hurt me. I go into the water and I call the boys to me. This is my revenge. I take my boys and I hold them under the water until they quit fighting. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What have I done? No, no, no, no, no, no. Despair. I take my own life. Well that's weird. I I guess it didn't work because I'm still here walking around.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Nothing looks the same. Nothing feels the same. Where are my children? They were just here with me in the water. I mean meos.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

I will search for them until we are reunited. Wait. What's that sound? Is that children laughing? Eos! I am coming to get you! You will be reunited with me. Who are those people with you? Why are you calling them mom and dad? You are mine, and they will pay for taking you.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

So listeners, that was the tale of La Jorona, the weeping woman, the crying woman, the wailer. A tale as old as the fifteen hundreds or earlier. Imagine you're in the fifteen hundreds and you hear a woman crying, My children, my children, where are my children? And you see a tall, thin woman dressed in white with long dark hair that's wet and tangled. She has hollow, sorrowful eyes. Her cries of Mihos, Mijos, Dante are said to lure the living towards danger. She's supposed to be searching for her children, and if she finds yours first, she will take them, thinking they are hers. She is usually found near water. However, many people have heard her cries in different places where there is no water. If you hear La Lorana or Seer, she is said to be a harbinger of doom, danger, and death. La Lurana is very vengeful. She will take her anger out on anyone who she thinks has her children. Many Hispanic parents use La Lurana as a scare tactic to make their children listen or to stay away from dangerous situations. The threat may go something like, Don't you get in the pool if there is no adult, La Lorana may get you and take you away from us. Stay out of the road or La Yorana may get you. You better listen to your parents, or La Yorana will take you away from us. There are many variations to the La Yorana tale. You can Google her on YouTube and you can you can see what I mean. Many uh believe her story started with the Aztecs, that she may actually be directly linked to the Aztec earth goddess. Okay, don't laugh at me, I've gotta pronounce this. Or that she is Malinzin or La Malinche, the enslaved indigenous woman who the primary who is the primary interpreter and concubine of the Spanish conquistador uh Hernan Cortes. This version was told in Rudolfo Ananya's novel, The Legend of La Lorona, which was published in 1984. So I mean La Lorona goes back a ways. I mean, from the 1500s and earlier. Some say her husband wasn't a cheater, but very abusive. Another version says that the children were born, when the children were born, the h the husband cared more for the children than he did his wife. I tend to believe he was a cheater. I know it sounds silly because I wasn't there, but um he only wanted to be with her because of her beauty. And after she had kids, I don't think he found her as attractive, which is a real jerk thing to think. Like, dude, she brought forth life that helped you that you helped create, and now you're gonna get with someone else because they haven't had kids, so no stretch marks, uh, or nothing to take the attention away from you. So I I kind of think he was a jerk and probably cheated on her. Of course, there have been I've got to tell you about the films depicting La Llorana dating back to 1933 with a Mexican film La Llorona, La Madación de La Llorona, and 1963's The Curse of the Crying Woman. Although I've never watched those particular movies, I've watched the 2019 Curse of La Llorana, and it was it it really makes you want to keep your kids close. And I know they kind of exaggerate things and uh they put their own spin on it, I guess you would say. But this is not something that a lot of people take lightly. So when they make the movies and they put the spin on it, there's still some this came from some truth somewhere. Like someone had to have seen something. You don't just like make this up out of your head. Like, what started that? Like, how did it get started? So the tale of La Yorana embodies themes of guilt, grief, and internal eternal punishment. And I encourage everyone to turn off the lights and watch the movies or get on YouTube and listen to people's encounters or experiences. Ask around. You'd be surprised at how many people have heard the cries of La Yurana. Now, they say that if you hear her cries and she sounds far away, she's probably right at your window. But if she sounds really close, she's actually far away. Now, I respect this story and I respect the tale. Um, because some people do believe if you keep talking about it, you are actually calling her to you. So I'm definitely prayed of. I'm definitely that, but I am still sitting here in the dark with a candle. So yeah, there's that. But uh, as always, I've got to tell you where I got my information. I got it from historyinsantafe.com, Britannica, from YouTube, uh Daisy Maria. Uh these are all gonna be YouTube ones, uh Nightmare Files, Sam and Colby React, Harrow House Films, Something Scary to Talk About with Cassie Moon. So I hope you enjoyed this week's tale. Join me next week when I'm hoping to have a special guest.

unknown 11:11

Did you hear that? Shh it's gonna be okay.