Michael Cruz

Professor Encinias
CAS 115
11/5/22

In La Llorona, this movie is about how an ex general named Enrique Monteverde has
been charged with genocide, killing over one third of the Mayan population. After being charged
with this horrendous crime, Enrique goes into hiding where many of his guards are protecting
him over the Mayan crowd who wish him dead. They demand justice for all the sins Enrique has
committed. During all these riots that surround him, an indigenous maid named Alma becomes
the new maid for their house and haunts him relentlessly. This movie talks about what Enrique
has done to the Mayan population but doesn’t really show it. However, there was one towards the
end that stood out.

Throughout the movie, Enrique’s wife Carmen is having dreams of herself with two
children. In this dream, they are hiding from the generals. The movie doesn’t show this scene all
at once. In fact in the middle of the movie, she begins the dream, but it isn’t until the ending of
the movie that she finishes the dream. Anyways, in the ending of the dream, the soldiers capture
Carmen and the two children. The soldiers call their general. The general proceeds to ask her
where the guerillas are hiding. Carmen, crying as she answers, tells them that she doesn’t know
where they are hiding. He threatens them that if she doesn’t answer him, he will kill her children.
The general asks her again and she responds all the same, crying as she answers. The camera
then reveals to us who the general is. In this reveal, we see that Enrique is the general. Enrique
then orders the soldiers to drown the children in front of Carmen. After the children die from
drowning, Enrique shoots Carmen. Carmen however, doesn’t die. When she is shot, Carmen sees
Alma, the new maid, fall down with a bullet in her head. In this dream, Carmen was Alma. She
was living Alma’s life.

The significance of the scene was Alma has been dead throughout this whole time. She
decided to haunt Enrique as La Llorona. In the old tales, La Llorona is known as a mother who
drowned her own children and proceeded to commit suicide after this terrifying act. She then
haunts children as a demon in her sleep. This movie, however, told it from a different approach.
In this movie, La Llorona doesn’t drown her children. Enrique was the one who gave the order to
drown her children. She is avenging her children! Throughout the whole movie, Carmen never
believed the allegations against Enrique. She defended him. She even said all the women who
accused him of rape just wanted attention. After completing her dream of watching the truth of
how Enrique killed Alma and her children, Carmen finally believes the allegations made against
him. She even murders him after this realization. In the dream she begins to choke Enrique to
death, only to find out she was choking him in real life. The rest of the family watches Carmen
kill Enrique. Even though he is a part of the family, they don’t stop Carmen because they know
what a horrible man Enrique is.