by: Pat Trevino – Happy Halloween.
Growing up on a farm in DeWitt County, I often woke up to the terrifying sounds of a woman screaming. I remember sitting up in bed waiting for the next horrifying scream. There were days I would hear the screams while I was outside gathering eggs or feeding the animals. On those days, it would stop me on my tracks, and I would run to the safety of my home leaving behind a long list of incomplete chores. I’d rush indoors and tell my parents, but they never seemed overly concerned, nor did they ever tell me that what I was hearing were the mating calls of a peacock.
Perhaps they initially ignored it, dreading the need to explain the mating process, fearing that it would lead to further explanations. In any event, the screams were particularly haunting for a child raised on folktales of La Llorona. The cries of a peacock could send shivers down anyone’s spine, but for a child who believed those cries to be La Llorona, the experience was truly petrifying.
La Llorona’s story can be traced back to the time when the Spaniards first conquered the Aztecs. It’s a tale whispered in hushed tones to children, and for many it was considered a bedtime story. It’s a story of a weeping woman who roams the riverbanks, ready to snatch any child who ventures too close to the water. According to legend, she was a beautiful Mexican Indian woman who fell deeply in love with a Spaniard during the conquest of Mexico. The two had children together and for a few short years they lived quite happy together. Unbeknownst to the Indian woman, the Spaniard was plotting to leave her.
The entire time he was with his Indian maiden he was making arrangements to bring over his Spanish bride. The day his bride arrived the Spaniard left the Indian woman and abandoned his children to marry her.
Driven to madness by his betrayal, it is said that she drowned her own children in a fit of rage. After many days of not seeing her children, she began searching for them and calling out to them but to no avail they were nowhere to be found. It was then that she came to her senses, her madness quickly passing and leaving her with the realization of her horrifying actions, that she had killed her own children!
Overwhelmed by her actions and devoid of any will to live, she ended her life by leaping into the river where she had drowned her children. Upon facing God, He inquired about her children. The Indian woman was so consumed by shame that she was unable to confess her heinous act to the omniscient God. Instead, she lied and said that they were playing somewhere along the river. The all-knowing and all-seeing God declared to the woman that she could not enter heaven’s gates without her children. Thus, she is doomed to walk the earth for all eternity, wailing in anguish as she searches for her lost children.
It is said that her cries echo through the night, particularly during or following a heavy rainfall. The sound of La Llorona’s weeping is a bone-chilling reminder of her eternal sorrow. Mexican mothers warn their children to stay away from the riverbanks, fearing that La Llorona will drag them to a watery grave.
Growing up in a farm in Dewitt County, the eerie calls of peacocks became a haunting part of my childhood. Each time I heard that cry, I imagined it was La Llorona herself, wandering the night in search of her lost children. The story of La Llorona, with its deep roots in Mexican folklore, left an indelible mark on my imagination, blending the line between myth and reality.
(There are many versions of the La Llorona tale, and the story above is the one I remember most.)
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