La Llorona – Final Project Reflection and links

My blog posts focused mainly on La llorona, like many others, however, I decided to focus more on modern views of La Llorona in television and film. I chose to focus on La Llorona because growing up I can remember my parents scaring me into not being up or out too late or la llorona would come and get me. I can also remember all the stories I’ve heard from relatives that live in very small towns (pueblos) that have experienced some sort of supernatural encounter (hearing la llorona, seeing a woman by a river, etc,.) I also wanted to look back on the novels that we read throughout the semester and attempt to identify a figure that relates to the concept that is la llorona. In my first post, I looked at comparing and contrasting two shows that deal with other-worldly beings and folklore, Supernatural and Grimm. For my second blog post I went through the blog posts of my classmates and lecture notes, as well as re-read the course books again in order to identify certain scenes or characters from the books that resembled the story of la llorona. In my final post, I summarize, review, and analyze the film, “Her Cry: La Llorona Investigation.” A film I was made aware about by Dr. Perez.

 

(Post 1 of 3) Comparing and Contrasting La llorona in Supernatural and Grimm 

(Post 2 of 3) La llorona as seen in many of the course readings

(Post 3 of 3) “Her Cry: La Llorona Investigation” Synopsis, Anlysis, and Review 

Comments

La Llorona – Final Project Reflection and links — 2 Comments

  1. It is interesting to see how parents used the story of La Llorona. For yourself, your parent untilled fear in you by telling you to not stay up too late, or else the La Llorona would come. For myself however, when I was younger, my parents would tell me that anything that had to do with water attracted La Llorona. When I would cry, my parents would say, “Deja de llorar, si no La Llorona vendrá.”
    We can both conclude that the legendary myth of La Llorona had a great impact on many lives of children.

  2. Growing up I remember my mom mentioning La Llorona a few times. I remember how the vivid imagery of a “weeping woman” fascinated me and I wanted to know more about her. This semester, it has been really interesting to learn about her different origin theories, and how she has been used to vilify women, but how Chicana feminists have reclaimed her. For me, one of the most intriguing theories is La Llorona being La Malinche. I feel in a way, it is just another way to further demonize Malinche. However, the tragic story of both of Malinche’s children being taken from her is heartbreaking. Cortez’s son left for Spain and Malinche’s daughter with Juan Jaramillo was raised by his second wife. If La Llorona was in fact a real person and if the story was presented with actual events, Malinche could not be La Llorona, as both of her children lived. If symbolic, then yes, Malinche could be her, mourning the loss of her children and the pain she endured in her life. Either way, I find the story of La Llorona to be tragic and could symbolize the experienced pain leading up to and following the conquest. It is interesting to hear the different variations of La Llorona and the effects of her stories on others, and on the Chican@/Mexican/Latin@ culture as a whole.