La Llorona - Weeping Ghost of the Southwest

La Llorona - The Weeping Woman

READER'S STORIES

La Llorona woke me up once when I was camping at Indian Falls rapids on the Yampa River in Colorado when I was fifteen. I walked with her to a cabin and there was a man in the bed. All I saw was his foot but, when she yelled at me to run, I did. If I didn't smash my toe on a rock, I would have run off the cliff into the Indian Falls rapids. I saw an article in this months Mountain Gazzete about her and looked her up on the internet. My experience was 21 years ago.- Bryan, Colorado, October, 2008

A Kansas Tale

Lady Ghost

Recently while working as a copy editor for a newspaper, I came across a wire story about the La Llorona. That brought back memories of what happened to me while I was a student at Kansas State University in the early 1980s in Manhattan, Kansas, and led me to your Web site where I read more about the legend.

One evening I went to a mobile home that I seem to remember being near a creek or river to visit a couple of my friends who also were attending K-State. As I walked into the door, I found them sitting on the sofa looking somewhat freaked out. They explained that just moments earlier one of the bar stools was spinning and hopping around. As they were Mexican-Americans, they wondered whether the La Llorona had anything to do with that incident. They explained the legend to me as I had never heard about it before.

They would invite me to stay the night in a spare bedroom, which I did. Later in the night a woman appeared to me, laying next to me in bed, and asked if I would know where her children were. It seemed that, while I may have been dreaming, I was half-awake. Then I fully awoke and looked up toward the doorway just in time to see a dark figure seemingly looking at me and then quickly ducking back out the doorway. Right then that left me too scared to go check and see if that was one of my friends checking in on me, perhaps to see why I was talking in my sleep or something. I went back to sleep and waited until the morning to ask them if either one of them looked into my room during the night. Neither one did.

So to this day I do not know whether I really did experience a supernatural visit or if my dream and mind played tricks on me.

Submitted By: Name and city withheld, August, 2006

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A Bizarre Coincidence of La Llorona

When I was in the seventh grade, I had a frightening dream. I saw myself standing on a dark road with the only illumination coming from a dim streetlight. The ground was wet and in the distance I could hear the sound of rain falling and the tap, tap, tapping of footsteps coming toward me. Peering into the darkness, I could make out a woman, dressed all in black with a dark lacy veil covering her face, moving toward me. Strangely, as the mysterious woman grew closer, so did the rain.

When the woman was about 15 feet in front of me, she looked over my shoulder. When I turned around to see what she was looking at, I saw a young child dressed in a white night gown playing with a doll in the middle of a puddle of water. When I turned back to her, she was right in front of me. The veil was lifted, her eyes were abnormally wide, and her face was no more than three inches away from mine. Her terrifying eyes stared into mine dead on until I awoke in a panic. I looked toward the window – it was raining. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day, I shook off the dream and thought nothing more about it, until a year later. On that night, I was spending the night with my friend Veronica, who had also invited another friend named Sarah. In the course of the evening, Sarah, who is Hispanic, began to tell us some of the legends and ghost stories of the Mexican culture. When she began to tell the tale of La Llorona, I didn’t think anything of it at first. Then she began to tell of how the legendary spirit travels by water, dressed all in black or white and is most always seen wearing a veil. Sarah continued by telling us that La Llorona lifts her veil only to her “victims,” that in their afterlife, she has chosen to help her find the bones of her lost children.

Now, I constantly wonder if, in my afterlife, I will be forced to help her find the bones of her lost children.

If anyone has any information or opinions, I would like to hear them. Please e-mail me at: yogipunk13@yahoo.com

Submitted By: Tonia Apelar of Eureka, California, November, 2005

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La Llorona in Texas

As we noted above, La Llorona doesn't limit her travels to New Mexico. Seemingly, she follows Hispanic people wherever they go, as evidenced by the story that Pete Sanchez shared with us about crossing the San Bernard River Bridge in East Bernard, Texas. East Bernard is southwest of Houston in Wharton County. This old community built its first residence around 1850 on the east side of the San Bernard River. Today the San Bernard Bridge spans the river.

Several years ago, Mr. Sanchez was driving along in East Bernard with the radio blaring. As he was crossing the river bridge he was startled as he looked to the right to see a semi-transparent woman sitting in his passenger seat.

Texas-SanBernardRiver.jpg (300x224 -- 46594 bytes)

San Bernard River courtesy Texas Watch Website

Dressed all in black, the spirit's face was covered by a lacy black veil. Obviously frightened, Sanchez hit the gas hard, speeding past the bridge, and not looking back into the passenger seat. It wasn't until he was past the bridge that he found the courage to look again. The spirit had vanished. Mr. Sanchez readily admits that he is still freaked out today by that ghostly image.

When Mr. Ssnchez read the story above, about the Garcia brothers encountering a tall woman wearing a black tapelo and a black net over her face, who appeared on the wagon seat between them, he obviously saw similarities. We agree!

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La Llorona in Mexico

My story of La Llorona takes place in Mexico. When I was eight years old when my abuelita (grandma) told me to go to the store to buy soda. This was during the evening as we were getting ready to eat supper. My brother and I left for the store and along the way we heard wailing but we didn't pay much attention to it. However, as we continued on we saw a young woman walking toward us. All of a sudden my little brother started to cry and the woman ran toward him, acting as if she was going to get him. When we saw that she was floating instead of walking we began to run back to our house and told our grandmother and mom what had happened. We just locked the door and started to pray to God to help us and make La Llorona go away.

Submitted by Daisy Calderon. Daisy is now 12 years old and truly believes that La Lloronais real.

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An Attack by the Weeping Woman

When I was about 8 years old, I had just started becoming interested in all things paranormal. I was researching La Llorona when all of a sudden I heard a noise, so I decided to check it out. Then I heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom so I walked in and stopped at the sink. Then all of a sudden my head was pushed into the sink and the water started to run. The sink finally filled all the way and I was trying to breathe. Then I couldn't breath anymore. I thought I was going to die of lack of oxygen. So I screamed and my mom came in. She pulled my head out after a struggle and hugged me tightly. She knew I wouldn't drown myself, so she started thinking. Then she froze and her face turned white. She screamed and almost fainted. I asked her what was wrong and she said with a stutter, "La-La-La Llorona." - Emily Ortiz

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