This one is a request of this week’s judge which always makes me pretty happy. Not being of Latin decent myself, the first I heard of this story was on Jack Osbourne’s short lived paranormal investigation show a year or two ago. It leans a little heavy on ghost story vs a mythical beast but hell we’s gots to have some variety from time to time and it’s got murdered children, mournful beastly cries in the night and topped with an overwhelming helping of sadness, how can we go wrong ; )
I’ve read like 15 different versions of this story today so I’m guessing every region has it’s own version, but here’s the general gist… Long long ago in a small village in Mexico there was a beautiful woman named Maria, who’s marriage to her dream love was drifting towards the not so good. Now this is where the versioning gets a little wacky either Her husband traveled and was away for long stints and upon his return would only pay attention to his children. Or their marriage was never blessed by the church and eventually the mans family forced him to marry another more suitable bride. Regardless the result was the same, either out of jealousy of the children or an act of vengeance against her man. Little Maria flung/walked both of her younglings into the river where they immediately drown.
Now surprise surprise upon his learning of this act, her man was not pleased, which devastated her, so obviously a creature of habit, she drowned herself in a lake. Now as a general rule of thumb, child killers aren’t well received in the afterlife, so she was challenged at the gates of heaven as to the whereabouts of her children and not allowed entry… Now Maria is forced to wander the Earth for all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her the name “La Llorona”.
Her descriptions vary widely from a beutiful woman in white gowns to more of the wet, stringy sea hag look made so popular by recent Japanese horror knock offs. In some tales, La Llorona will kidnap wandering children who resemble her missing children, or children who disobey their parents. Others tell of a beutiful woman drowning but when they dive in to dangerous waters to save her she is never to be found. People who claim to have seen her say she appears at night or in the late evenings from rivers or oceans in Mexico. Some believe that those who hear the wails of La Llorona are marked for death. She is said to cry, “Ay mis hijos!” which translates to, “Oh, my children!”
Our Judge this week was Mr Ralph Melgosa – He’s been a Game Designer & Senior artist at Incredible Technologies for 23 years. Father to 4 sons. Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 155. Comic book fan. And I’d like to add he was one of many Chicagoland folks dealing with some pretty atrocious storm damage this week, so thanks for taking the time to judge during what I’m sure was a hectic week.
