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La Llorona She's the most popular "spirit" in New Mexico: in a land full of haunting tales and legends. Consider that Santa Fe is the oldest still-active town in the US. That's a lot of dead people, a lot of spirits roaming around. And this legend of this hauntingly wailing woman lingers in the mind of almost everyone. She was, and hopefully still is, our most frightening tale.Actually the story of La Llorona is as much fable as truth, as far as we know. Old world historians talk of a La Llorona legend in the backwoods of Old Spain. There seems to be several versions of the tale, even in modern day New Mexico, where the "wailing woman" is said to still haunt the hills around Santa Fe. The legend could have began as a very practical method of keeping us kids out of the Arroyos (dried riverbeds). In the rainy month of August, arroyos could fill up in seconds with a flash flood, leaving anyone in them doomed.As the legend goes, La Llorona was a widow woman of the 18th century, living near the village of Santa Fe in 'New Spain'. Renegade Commanche hunted in the nearby the hills and mountains and often raided homesteads. As the story goes, La Llorona was so intent on finding a new husband, that she neglected her children and her family duties, spending most of her time in the saloons and gambling halls of Santa Fe, intent on finding "a man" to care for her and her needs. It was during one such excursion that her children were brutally murdered by the Commanche, drowned and dumped in a nearby irrigation ditch or stream. Another version of the story has it that La Llorona herself drowned her children after meeting a man that refused to take a woman with so many children.Whatever. The kids died. She kills herself in despair. The tormented soul of La Llorona now forever walks the hillsides to this day, wailing in anguish over the loss of her children. Sightings of the ghostly figure have been reported all across northern New Mexico as an apparition in long, flowing gown, carrying a torchlight in search of her lost children. Wailing. She's always wailing."Mis Ninos! Donde estan mis ninos?" ("My children! Where are my children?")La Llorona still walks along the banks of New Mexico's arroyos. Sightings are most prevalent between the later months of October and the early part of November. Alone at night, you're likely to see her wherever there is water running freely and when there's a full moon. Of course, before you see her, you'll always hear that unholy wailing. Sources: Mysteries & Miracles of New Mexico, Jack Kutz Rhombus Publishing Co., Corrales NM , ?1985 |
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