La Lorena Is a big part of Hispanic folklore. It Is used to scare children from wandering in the night and to warn them of the danger of being alone. In this essay will talk about Lorena. I will talk about her life before having kids, what she did to her kids and present day beliefs about her ghost. Stories of La Lorena date back to 1 502, and differ In Orleans (Sentential, 2007). Most of the stones have things in common. I will be talking about the most common and important points.
Stories of La Lorena date back to the time of the conquistadors. This ghostly woman wanders along canals and rivers crying for her missing children. Called in Spanish La Lorena, “the Weeping Woman,” Is found in many cultures and regions. One of the first stones of La Lorena links her to Herman Courts and La Mainline, the mistress of the conquistador. Together La Mainline and Herman have two kids. As told in the stories La Mainline, who helped in the conquest of Mexico, is replaced by a Spanish wife when Cortes returns to Spain.
As Courts loses Interest In La Melancholy, she becomes Jealous of the attention the children receive and as an act of vengeance, without thinking, La Mainline drowns her two children. Other stories say she was a beautiful peasant woman named Maria who married a rich handsome man. This man has everything she was looking for. He was the son of a wealthy rancher; money was no problem to him. He knew he could have anything he wanted but Marl, knowing she was beautiful, refused to be taken easily by this man. The man after many attempts to persuade her, vows to marry her.
Maria finally gives in and marries the man. In this version of the story she has two children and lives happily with the man for a while. After some time, the man starts to lose Interest In her and becomes bored. He begins to spend more time with different women and devotes his attention to the kids rather that to her. Maria becomes outraged; she blames the lack of Interest of the husband on her children. Without thinking, Maria drowns her children In a nearby river. In both stories La Lorena realizes what she has done.
The anguish f having killed her children drove her to drown herself as well. When La Lorena tries to get through the doors of heaven she is pushed back and told that she may not enter until she brings her children with her. Ashamed she returns to earth and searches the river for her children. She searches all rivers but isn’t able to find them. As she goes around searching she cries, “Ay runs holds” (Oh my children). Some stories say that in her desperation to find her children she grabs kids that are near rivers at night.
