Mexico may be the home of tequila, margarita, Carlos Santana, mariachis, the Mexican wave, Mexican delicacies, Salma Hayek and many more but it is also home to a really terrifying folklore figure named La Llorona.

A wooden sculpture of La Llorona. (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Llorona)

What Are The Signs You Have Come Face To Face With La Llorona?

Well, Mexicans claim that this ghostly woman could be seen near bodies of water. She is dressed in white and her hair is black. You will hear someone wailing softly until it gets louder, hence the coinage, “The Wailing Woman.” Also, La Llorona reportedly walks around while soaking wet and says in between the wails, “Ay, mis hijos!” or “Oh, my children!” in English.

How La Llorona reportedly looks like. (Link: https://mx.tuhistory.com/noticias/los-lamentos-de-la-llorona)

The woman reportedly sometimes does not have any facial features so it would make one wonder where the wailing is coming from. Others claim she has eyes, a nose, and a mouth but they are protruding. Allegedly, if you come face to face with La Llorona, this would mean either death, disease, or something horrifying one could think of. Others claim that she tries to snatch other kids thinking that they are her own.

She is reportedly found more often at the Alazon and Martinez creeks in the San Antonio region.

What Is The Story Behind La Llorona?

Most folklores have different histories and La Llorona is not an exception. However, the story of La Llorona as to why she is found near bodies of water and why she is wailing centers on the supposed fact that she drowned her children and she drowned herself, too. She was not, however, accepted in heaven because of what she did to her kids that is why she was sent back to suffer by aimlessly wandering on earth.

One story about La Llorona claims that she is the other twin who was not baptized by a priest. Accordingly, La Llorona and her twin were so alike that the priest did not notice he baptized La Llorona’s sister twice. La Llorona then had children of her own but she never loved them. She then drowned them at an irrigation canal. Judgment day came and she was turned away from the heavens to look for her children she drowned.

Another story stems from jealousy. La Llorona was a poor woman who married a wealthy, older man. La Llorona became a mistress and bore his children. One day, the man stopped visiting them in the cottage he gave them. La Llorona then went to speak to him personally but she was told that he will be marrying another woman. She went home and was so angry that she took it upon her kids. She took them to the river and drowned them. She was taken to jail and later realized what she did to her kids. She then died from grief and her spirit was doomed to wander the earth until she found her kids.

In another story, a teenage girl got pregnant and her father was so ashamed he drowned her children. Another claims that La Llorona was a cheating wife who also drowned her kids.

The most famous story of La Llorona, however, pertains to the attempted murder of seven children in 1986 at the San Antonio region. A woman named Juana Marie Leija reportedly suffered from abuse from her husband for years that she was so fed up she took her kids to the Buffalo Bayou and drowned them there. Only two died from the attempt of the woman because rescuers were able to find and save the rest of them.

When asked why she did it, Juana Marie Leija said that she had no choice because her husband was violent and aggressive towards her and their children and that she is actually La Llorona.

How Do You Summon La Llorona’s Spirit?

Allegedly, you have to be in front of a bathroom mirror and the lights need to be out. The door also has to be closed and the people trying to summon her should say her name three times after splashing water on the mirror.

La Llorona Makes Its Way To The Mainstream

The image of this ghostly woman appears on many products like t-shirts, jewelry, onesies of children, and more. Also, an attraction at the Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights featured La Llorona’s story. This was in 2012 and small bodies were seen floating in the water to symbolize her children, weeping figures, and La Llorona herself. People who went and tried the attraction had to walk through a maze.

In 2013, Universal Studios Orlando also included La Llorona in their Halloween maze.

A screenshot from a YouTube video showing the La Llorona attraction at Universal Studios Orlando. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ziOGDLS1vU)

This 2018, a movie is also on the works based on La Llorona’s story and it is called, “The Curse of La Llorona.” It is slated to hit theaters on April 19, 2019.

A photo of the cast of “The Curse of la Llorona” at Comic-Con’s ScareDiego. (Link: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-comic-con-scarediego-20180719-story.html)

Do You Want To See La Llorona?

People are banking on La Llorona’s popularity. There is this tour called Ghosts of Old San Antonio tour and there will be schedules of when groups could go out at night and try hunting down La Llorona’s ghost.