page_title: Mexican-American folklore
section_title: La Llorona
hierarchical_section_title: Mexican-American folklore / History / La Llorona
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing depicting La Llorona.
context_page_description: Mexican-American folklore refers to the tales and history of Chicano people who live in the United States.
context_section_description: The most famous example of a woman in Chicano folklore is La Llorona, the weeping woman. There are a few different variations of La Llorona, but the common consensus is that she is the ghost of a murderous mother who haunts near water like river banks or lake shores. She is always described as having long hair, down below her waist, and is seen wearing a white gown. As the tale goes, her lover left her with their two children. Angry, she drowned her children in an act of revenge or grief. For that reason, she is doomed to walk the earth forever in search of her children. La Llorona “serves as a cultural allegory, instructing people how to live and act within established social mores”. Her tale is often used as a bedtime story to get children to go to sleep or behave when out in public. However, to others her legend is just another spooky story meant to scare children. Given the popularity of the legend, there are many works done by “folklorists, literary critics, anthropologists, and feminist writers. Children's books, short stories, novels, and films” are just a few of the ways La Llorona has been inscribed into history. As Gloria Anzaldua, a scholar of Chicana cultural and feminist theory, talked about in her article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, living on the U.S. side of the border made it hard for Hispanics to relate to their national identity because of the oppression by Anglos. Anglos forced those of Hispanic descent to speak English at schools. Anzaldua stated how she remembered being caught speaking Spanish at recess and got “three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.”
caption: Drawing of the La Llorona
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