The story of ‘La Llorona,’ the weeping woman, lingers
From Dec. 12, 2008:
I have a co-worker who sighs and says, “La Llorona, La Llorona,” whenever she hears another employee complaining about something around the workplace. I asked what it means and she said she didn’t know. She said it is just something people in her family say.
Do you know what it means?
La Llorona refers to the story of “the weeping woman.” The legend of La Llorona is common in Central America, Mexico and parts of the Southwest. And it is very old.
Nobody knows for certain where it came from, although some think it might be based on legends of the Mayan goddess Cihuacoatl or on an Aztec water goddess who would sit by a stream crying until a handsome young man came by and asked her what was wrong. Then she would seize him and drown him in the stream.
There are many variations of this story. Basically, it comes down to a woman who drowns her children and herself. Why she does this depends on which version you hear.
The weeping woman is often a young woman seduced by a cad who gets her pregnant and then dumps her. Or a wife betrayed by an unfaithful husband.
So she drowns herself and the kids, and when she gets to the gates of heaven, God asks her where the children are.
Then she is doomed to walk the Earth forever seeking her lost children.
And when you hear the eerie moaning of the wind at night, it is said to be La Llorona weeping for her children.
There is even a version in which she is a he.
Your co-worker probably is using the phrase in the sense of someone who is always complaining or whining. Sort of like, “Boohoo, you poor baby.”
I am told there is also a La Llorona story similar to the legend of “Bloody Mary.” It’s said if you turn off the lights in a room and say, “La Llorona, you killed your children,” nine times, the face of a weeping woman will appear in the mirror.