The ghostly woman who wanders along canals and rivers crying for her missing

children, called in Spanish La Llorona, "the Weeping Woman," is found in many

cultures and regions. La Llorona is the story of a beautiful woman who, after
suffering heartbreak, drowns her children in a river.

In colonial times ,an indigenous woman falls in love with a Spaniard, and they
have three children but keep their relationship under wraps. Some time later,
the Spaniard marries a wealthy woman. The indigenous woman gets so angry
she kills her three children, and then immediately regrets it and throws herself in
the river. Ever since, her spirit has been wandering nearby crying out painfully,
“Aaaaaaaay, my children!”

The story of the Weeping Woman is told to youngsters as a "true" story of what
might get you if you're out after dark. But the most frequent use of the story is to
warn romantic teenage girls against falling for boys who may have nice clothes
and money but are too far above them to consider marriage.