Tale of La Llorona: A Mexican Folktale

 

authors: Linda Lowery and Richard Keep

illustrator: Janice Lee Porter

Lerner / Millbrook, 2008

grades 2-up 

Mexican

In this adaptation of the Llorona tale, a young girl named Maria grows up wanting riches and life in a grand hacienda, rather than being satisfied with what she has. Nothing is good enough for her and when a rich young man visits her mother’s inn, she becomes his “segunda” or secondary woman. He visits periodically and she bears two children, always wondering when he is going to move her and her children to his hacienda. One day he arrives in a grand carriage with the woman he is going to marry. Maria ignores her own children playing on the riverbank and gives in to her rage, blaming everyone who ever came into her life and kept her from her dreams. It starts to storm before she comes to her senses and searches for her children. They are gone. The river rages in the storm and she roams the bank, wailing for her children, forever.

The overriding theme is to be satisfied with what you have; at least don’t blame others for what you can control. Make good decisions. Life ain’t always fair.

Porter’s illustrations are effective, smoothly transitioning from simple drawings to eerie, floating vapors. Lowery and Keep have created a straightforward and simple retelling of the ancient legend. Recommended.

—Judy Zalazar Drummond
(published 4/7/13)

La Llorona, the Weeping Woman: An Hispanic Legend told in Spanish and English

author: Joe Hayes

illustrators: Vicki Trego Hill and Mona Pennypacker

Cinco Puntos Press, 2004

grades 4-up

Mexican

The author is correct, totally correct: There are many, many variations of this ancient legend. Hayes writes, “the stories weren’t told merely to entertain the children. Storytelling was a way for older ones to pass some wisdom and understanding on to the young.” It seems that Hayes’ version is meant to show young people that pretty, even beautiful, women are vain, jealous, and will destroy anything that, and anyone who, gets in their way.

The young woman in this story is so beautiful that she won’t give the time of day to the young men of her village and will only go with the most handsome man in the land, who eventually kicks her to the curb for a woman of his own class. He is a dog, but also a man, so that makes it OK for him to treat her like chattel. She is beautiful, and since no woman should have any rights—beautiful or not—she kills her children because she is jilted. The double standard is so strong here it reeks. Most Llorona stories tell of a woman so overburdened she snaps, whether La Malinele or La Malinche, under the strain of oppression, not vanity. Hayes’ message to children is a patriarchal one: Be a sexist man and you will be rewarded. Be a beautiful woman and you probably should hide under a rock because you won’t be a good person.

There are too many good versions of this tale to bother with this one. It is sexist and an affront to women. Not recommended.

—Judy Zalazar Drummond
(published 4/7/13)