La Llorona

La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) is the main antagonist of The Curse of La Llorona.

History
In a remote mountain village, there lived a young woman named Maria. She comes from a poor family but is endowed with great beauty. One day, a rich nobleman passed by her village. When he saw Maria, the nobleman fell in love with Maria and vice versa, Maria was also mesmerized by the nobleman's charm. Therefore, when the young nobleman proposed to her, she immediately agreed. Maria's family was very emotional when their daughter was married into a wealthy family, but the nobleman's father was completely against this marriage because of Maria's background. Maria and her husband were forced to live in a house in that village in order to continue this marriage. Their life seemed to be happy, but soon after Maria gave birth to her husband two sons, the husband gradually left the family to travel and adventure. When the husband returned home, he only paid attention to his children, excluding Maria. She realized that her husband had stopped loving her. One day, he took his mistress back to the village to say goodbye to his sons and abandon Maria.

Maria suffered and despaired at that betrayal. She madly lost all reason and brought her two children to the banks of the Rio Grande. She drowned them in a fit of blind rage. When she calmed down, Maria realized the terrible actions she had committed, she searched for the bodies of the children, but those bodies were washed away by the Rio Grande River. A few days later, Maria committed suicide by the river, where she drowned her children. Maria's soul is not released until she finds her children. Trapped between the mundane and the underworld, she wanders in search of her lost children. Maria often mourns for her children, which is heard by the locals and since then, Maria is known as La Llorona (The Weeping Woman). La Llorona wanders into the world to kidnap children at night, children she mistakes for her own. La Llorona begged God's forgiveness, and drowned the children she had kidnapped to their death. Accompanied by crying, La Llorona lamented: "¡Ay, mi hijos!" (Oh, my children!). La Llorona often wanders by the river or stream to find her children.

Many people believe that La Llorona's lamentations often bring good luck or even bring death to the listener (similar to Banshee in Celtic mythology). If someone hears La Llorona cry close by, she is very far away from the listener, and if someone hears La Llorona cry very far away, she is very close to that person. Many parents often use this story to scare their children to warn them not to roam late at night.