La Llorona (The Weeping Woman): An Hispanic Legend

From School Library Journal
Grade 4 Up - This legendary tale is not only a spine-tingling ghost story, but also a cautionary tale about a breathtakingly lovely, working-class girl. All of the local gallants have their eyes on María, but she feels that she's destined for better things. Accordingly, she holds out for a wealthy and dashing young ranchero who lives nearby. She plays hard to get, and the ploy is successful. Marriage and two children follow, but her husband is increasingly disenchanted with her. He even "talked of setting María aside and marrying a woman of his own wealthy class." María vents her jealousy and anger on her own children; she pushes them into the river, where they drown. Her remorse is immediate and useless. She cannot save them, and she dies of her grief. But her ghost lingers on, crying for the youngsters and willing to take any stray child she finds by the side of the river alone. Textually simpler than Joe Hayes's longer version of the same story in The Day It Snowed Tortillas/El día que nevaron tortillas (Cinco Puntos, 2003), this pared-down story packs a punch in both English and the author's fluid Spanish translation. The earth-tone, pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations make use of cross-hatching to create an eerie, almost graphic-novel sensibility that extends the story ably. A solid retelling of a classic tale. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish


Card catalog description
A retelling, in parallel English and Spanish text, of the traditional tale told in the Southwest and in Mexico of how the beautiful Maria became a ghost.


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In this classic folk story from Hispanic America, the once proud, beautiful Maria becomes enraged at her husband's infidelity. She turns her rage onto her children, throwing them into the river. Realizing her fateful deed, she attempts to find them, but she is found dead the next day on the riverbank. Soon after, villagers begin hearing crying in the night, that of a weeping woman crying for her children. At this point in the tale, children are admonished to be home before dark, or La Llorona (the weeping woman), may think the children are hers and take them away. This story is presented in both English and Spanish, and has a companion audiocassette. The richly detailed illustrations in brown hues capture the town, its residents, and their clothing.


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