Whereas many perceive La Llorona, the story of the Weeping Woman, as an old and somewhat outdated short, mythical story, scholar Bess Hawes illuminates newfound evidence that suggests the contrary. Examining Hawes’ La Llorona in Juvenile Hall, we are able to see instances pertaining specifically to La Llorona in Los Angeles and Southern California. Hawes’ findings work toward showcasing how La Llorona and her myth are still relevant in today’s cultures and in the up-in-coming youth. Hawes focuses upon interviewing children and their experience to La Llorona, and how the tale has been visited within their life living in Los Angeles. Hawes’ first cites a young boy’s death due to a mysterious figure that supposedly rolled a ball into oncoming traffic that caused a young boy to be ultimately killed, due to being struck by a vehicle. Another instance we see of La Llorona in Los Angeles took place in Canoga Park, where Hawe’s writes:
“La Llorona was following a path to Calabasas. A man driving down the street saw her, and his car plunged into the drainage ditch. Neighbors who witnessed the incident wouldn’t go near the scene for some time. The bodies of a man and a wife were encountered and the clothes of a baby but there was no [baby’s] body to be found. She is constantly searching for her children, and she believes all children to be hers” (Hawes, 165).
As well as:
“[Carolyn] saw her one time in Redondo Beach. It is the figure of a lady with a long veil. She killed her baby and walks around the light looking for it. She is followed by a little dog. The police painted the lighthouse white (for purity), so she left” (Hawes, 163).
Though the validity of these encounters is up to the reader to assess, Hawes brings La Llorona into more relevant context thus establishing the fact that “the La Llorona legend is both alive and active within the United States. This is validated by the unusual diversity of form and content shown by all three collections” (Hawes, 161). La Llorona is very much alive within Los Angeles especially, as well as within the Chicana/o culture, as Hawes’ acknowledges that her findings of La Llorona instances in L.A. are mostly made by those of Mexican or Indian descent. These sightings Hawes features in her study differ in two substantial elements from the traditional tale; that being the omission of a body of water, as well as the differing in personality traits. Whereas traditional depictions of the story include the water as the main context in which La Llorona is seen, these Los Angeles based examples exclude this feature. Rather than featuring water and instances of drowning children, Hawes’ examples focus more upon vehicular homicide — a much more gruesome and aggressive form of death, though fitting for L.A. due to the city’s massive traffic, roadway, and pollution problems.
It is interesting to see how both La Llorona functions within our community, as well as how the tale has evolved from its traditional telling: the L.A. La Llorona seems to have adapted to her surroundings by incorporating new methods to both attract and kill her victims — as well as omitting her traditional weeping and compelling attributes. This leads us to believe L.A.’s La Llorona is vindictive, merciless, and less regretful than her traditional counterpart. Whereas we usually hear of weeping and regret after killing her victims, these Los Angeles stories omit any of those features, and create an entirely new persona for the well-known weeping woman. High rates of moral turpitude and gang influence within Los Angeles may of had a strong influence on why La Llorona has changed into this new persona, being that her “new” characteristics mirror those of traditional gang criminality; La Llorona is much more masculine in her killings, much as a gang may be.
(Gang graffiti in South Central Los Angeles)
As Hawes’ writes, “these stories, though they include many classic motifs, are certainly not “classic” in stature. Told in cold clear monosyllables of the street, none is longer than seventy-five words” (Hawes, 169), This is one instance of how the story of La Llorona can be altered to both fit the geographical and communal resources and perspective.
Hawes’ work within Juvenile facilities illuminates how young, institutionalized children, whether for delinquent or dependency reasons, learn the tale of La Llorona through their peers. Rather than being learned from parental figures, we see evidence of how the story has adapted to Los Angeles, and why children have cited instances of seeing resemblances of La Llorona in their communities. Being that no major body of water exists within Los Angeles besides on the west; the children have interpreted the story in terms of their own circumstances, situations, and geographic locations. This may be sufficient to see how in other cultures, the myth of La Llorona evolves over time.
Word Count: 830
First installment found here.
Cited:
Article: Hawes, Bess Lomax. “La Llorona in Juvenile Hall.” JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Photos: offtoseethelephant.com, examiner.com
I found this article interesting because when we think of La Llorona, we think of an episode of Grimm or a cautionary tale. The story of La Llorona is, in a way, a cultural admonition for both children and adults. Like any urban legend, everyone has their take on the story and the with the passage of time, the story evolves into varying degrees of societal preservation. It’s interesting to me that through many stories involving abducted children in South American culture, many people automatically think of the classic La Llorona. Her presence is a testament to longevity because the tale is still prevalent today.
When I hear stories like this, it shows that although La Llorona is just a tale, there are people out there who mean to harm others, including children. Reading this article adds a sense of reality to the admonition that sometimes gets lost in the retelling of its mythology.
These re-tellings of the La Llorona stories are chilling, and I find it interesting that the victim’s families ascribe their loved ones death to a supernatural force. I wonder why this might be. Perhaps it is easier to attribute violent deaths of children to outside, supernatural forces rather than to members of their own community. As you wrote and Sarah pointed out, it is interesting how these stories have been preserved and updated to reflect changing times and geographical locations. In order for myths and stories to endure and remain relevant, they need to contain relateable elements.
It is very intriguing that La Llorona has adapted to different surroundings. Your research reminded me of a story my dad’s friend told us about La Llorona. He is a truck driver. According to him, one night he was driving and saw a woman standing on the side of the road. The woman had Llorona characteristics, beautiful, long hair, and wearing a white gown. The trucker was about to get off his truck but suddenly he saw his family’s picture that he taped on his truck. He remembered the legend of La Llorona and kept driving. When he stopped at a nearby diner the next morning and told his story, the waitress told him it was a good thing he didn’t stop because that woman was indeed La Llorona. However, instead of killing children, she killed men. Similar to what you said about Los Angeles not having many water sites, the town the trucker saw La Llorona didn’t have a water site nearby. Still, it is believed that La Llorona is there.
What an interesting post. Examining the regional differences within the tale of La Llorona can offer some very significant insight on the location, customs, attitudes, etc. I think the variations between the characteristics of La Llorona rely upon the different geographical locations, the years they take place, the population size, and the political climate. I found it fascinating that the Los Angeles-based tale of La Llorona does not have the fundamental aspect of water in it due to the lack of any body of water except the Pacific Ocean. Personally, I think the water element of the La Llorona tale is a crucial part to the story because without it, the whole narrative and story-line significantly changes. However, the whole vehicular homicide aspect of the Los Angeles-based story does make a lot more sense due to our car-obsessed culture that is notorious for speeding and driving like a maniac. Due to L.A’s very large population and urban backdrop, I can see how the aspects of La Llorona would be much more aggressive and vindictive than her regional counterparts. I think it’s awesome that a spooky story like La Llorona can have such a profound legacy within the Chicano community, and it has stood the test of time as it constantly modified in order to appropriately fit in with contemporary times. Nice job!