Basic Information
There are many different versions of this story. All of them agree that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who married the man she desired. Here is where they begin to vary though. Some of them take place in New Mexico while others have no specific location, just taking place in the Southwest. In some of the stories the man was wealthy forcing them to keep their marriage secret - until he is forced to marry another by his status, in others he was fickle leaving her for another woman, and in yet others he was merely a poor man that she had fallen for. All the stories involved the drowning of La Llorona's children in one of several ways.
- She drowns them because her husband has been paying more attention to them than her - placing the final nail in the coffin with his announcement that he will marry another woman.
- She drowns them because she has fallen for a man that seems to want her but not her children. After drowning them she comes to him in her bloodstained nightgown to show him what she has done for him. Horrified he turns her away.
- She drowns them in a fit of grief after their father is forced to marry another woman.
- She is a prostitute that aborts her children into the river.
- Her husband insists that he doesn't have the money for children and drowns her babies as soon as they are born- while she is too weak to do anything about it. This version has the shared trait of the husband being cursed as well.
After the error has been realized La Llorona drowns herself in grief. The exception being the last version mentioned where even though she was weak she followed and tried to stop him from drowning her child. She jumped into the water after it even though she couldn't swim, then several days later her husband jumped in after her driven mad by her wailing her despite the fact that he also couldn't swim. Once she has been drowned as well she becomes one of the restless dead. She wonders the world looking for her children. Looking for replacements. The new children invariably being drowned as well.
See Also
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Perhaps children have been disappearing and the PCs are paid to find them.
- Perhaps they are paid to put the ghost to rest.
- Perhaps they are paid by someone that sees proof of her existence as a wonderful tourist draw to get that proof.
- Maybe someone is using her legend to keep people away from whatever they are up to.
