La llorona

A mexican legend retold by Jacque

Long ago, before the spanish conquerors arrived, in the city Tenochititlan.

The warriors were brave, the women, beautiful. And the most beautiful of all was Cihuacoatl;

Some called her a goddess, always dressed in white. She made the sunrise just by stepping outside in the morning.

She was 15 when she met a handsome man. It was love at first sight for both of them. and soon she presented them with 2 baby boys.

The boys were his pride and joy, so much he no longer loved Cihua.

Soon the man left Chiua, and the twin boys,

Cihua mourned the mans faithlessness. The laughter died, she no longer sang as she bathed the boys; she forgot to put feathers in her hair.

One night while the boys were sleeping, Cihua looked out over the canal, and saw her man, looking as handsome as when the first day they met, but then she noticed the woman, holding onto his arm.

She yelled the mans name, he looked in her direction, just a glance, "come back, come back!!!" she yelled but he was gone.

she rushed into her hut, crying, grabbed her sons, one in each arm. and called to him once again, "you don't even want to see your sons?"

"Then take your babies!" she shouted. She tossed the right hand one into the canal; he made a small splash, almost a plop. She threw the left hand one in also. There was a sharp wail, cut off by a gurgle. Then silence.

Cihau's eyes cleared; the light came back. Her babies were floating down the stream, face down, to far away for her to reach.

All that night Cihua looked for her babies. She wailed no one heard her, no one came to help her.

They found her in the morning, bedraggled, and dripping, wether dead from grief or from drowning the old ones aren't sure.

They older people tell you never to go out alone at night or to the canals Cihua wander there wailing and weeping, you can hear her from far away, crying into the wind.

Legend has it that when she arrived at the gates of paradise the guardian asked for the souls of her twin boys. He won't let her enter until she returns with them.

and so she searches, mourning, always near the water. On rainy night she is deceived by the drenched pavement and roams the city streets; they have seen her, they say, a white figure in the mist with uncombed hair and muddy skirts.

"La llorona" they call her now, the weeping woman. "Ay, mis hijos, my babies," she cries "Ayyy! where can I find you?"

So DO NOT GO OUT ALONE AT NIGHT. She may mistake you for her faithless man, or his newest love.

FOCUS!!!!!!!!!!!!