La llorona - the most representative song based on Mexican legend

 Today I'm going to show a famous legend of "Llorona" which is mentioned very often in Spanish songs of the same title. First of all, we will get to know to the terrifying woman named Llorona and then we will discuss her image in Latin american music. 

A well known figure of Llorona ( the name comes from the verb "llorar" which means "to cry") appears in many versions of this legend in Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and many others. The most important aspect of her looks is that indeed she was a ghost wearing white veil and dress. When somebody met her, it turned out that in truth she was floating in the air.

The name of  the woman explains what really she was doing all the time. We can easily suppose that she was crying and... as the legend says - she was screaming terribly. Now, we have to find the answer - why so? 

In the 16th century on the streets of Mexico City the people could't fall asleep the other night in a row. Something or somebody was bringing an atmosphere of hopelessness and distress. It was caused by its scream and howl. Thanks to the full moon there was a possibility to see the silhouette of the mysterious creature. Then it was a common knowledge that it was Llorona.

According to the indigenous sources that woman was a representation of Cihuacóatl (a goddess of mexicas). There are many version of her coming to the Earth. The most known are:
1. She was a widow 
2. She couldn't get married
3. She lost her children 
4. She was betrayed by her lover and then she drowned their children and then she committed a suicide 
5. She was a patron of the women who died while giving  birth to babies

All of these options shows that Llorona was a creature whose aim was to overcome her pain on the Earth or to search for her (or the other women's) killed babies.

For sure this legend had to threaten to the people but nowadays this topic is only a sample of Mexican's folclore and myths. At the begging it existed only in zapoteco and nahuatl (languages of American Indian). It is even translated into languages as Polish, Finnish or English. It has around 500 different versions of the song. 

Llorona is known in Chile as Pucullén, in Colombia as Tarumama. According to mexicas in Mexico she is the representation of Cihuacóatl ( she used to walk among the Texcoco Lake).

In 2017 this topic was adapted into North American "Coco" where Llorona sounds in English.

Here we can listen to three versions of the song:

1. English version

 
2. Version in Nahuatl

3. Spanish version

Personally, I think that this legend sounds beautiful even in English in spite of the fact that it isn't the language in which the story was related so commonly :)