BLOG: 8 Chilling Childhood Encounters With La Llorona
Recurrent sightings of some mysterious (and scary) paranormal entities have been reported all over the world. Many people have seen the infamous figure of Hatman, while others have experienced the paralyzing Night Hag, and still others can recount similar experiences with the Rake, or shadow people, or Mothman… the list of supernatural terrors goes on!
One other frightening paranormal visage that has appeared to countless people is the specter of La Llorona. Known also as ‘The Weeping Woman,’ ‘The Woman in White,’ and ‘The Cryer,’ La Llorona is a figure of Hispanic American folklore with a tragic story. While oral tradition has created a few variations of her ghostly tale, the common theme among them tells of the legend of a woman so scorned by her husband she drowned her children in a river out of anguish. After also taking her own life, the woman becomes doomed to wander the earth in search of the children’s souls. As she wails and searches, La Llorona has been said to drown other children who encounter her, making her legend a cautionary tale parents tell their own kids to keep them from misbehaving.
But is La Llorona just a legend? Those who claim to have seen her or heard her screaming cries report many similar experiences, leading one to wonder whether her terrible presence is in fact a real one. Among the stories include sightings of a bedraggled woman in white screaming out "¡Ay, mis hijos!" (“Oh my children!”), and audible wailing heard near bodies of water and in the woods.
Yet another concerning - and creepy - commonality among La Llorona experiences is the young age of those who have witnessed her. A disturbing number of the encounters with The Weeping Woman seem to have happened to children, eerily supporting the notion that this recurrent apparition is seeking them out in order to find her own lost little ones.
One such childhood experience was shared on Episode 256: The Screaming La Llorona, and there are plenty of other eyewitness accounts that corroborate the legend of La Llorona. For more tales, read these 8 chilling childhood encounters with La Llorona:
1) Floating La Llorona: My story of La Llorona takes place in Mexico. When I was eight years old when my abuelita (grandma) told me to go to the store to buy soda. This was during the evening as we were getting ready to eat supper. My brother and I left for the store and along the way, we heard wailing but we didn’t pay much attention to it. However, as we continued on we saw a young woman walking toward us. All of a sudden my little brother started to cry and the woman ran toward him, acting as if she was going to get him. When we saw that she was floating instead of walking we began to run back to our house and told our grandmother and mom what had happened. We just locked the door and started to pray to God to help us and make La Llorona go away. Source.
2) The Scream in the Night: When I was 12 years old (1991), my parents separated and my mother moved me and my brother to Monterrey Mexico. In the winter all three of us would sleep in the same room because there was no central heating — only electric heaters. There were two beds for my mother and brother. I slept on the floor in a sleeping bag, next to my mother’s bed. One night around 2:30 in the morning, I woke up because I had been dreaming about my great-grandma. She kept calling my name — three times to be exact. Just a few minutes later I heard the scariest screams coming from down the street. It was horrible!!! The cries continued, each time coming closer. I was so horrified that I could not even wake my mother who was laying right next to me! I was so scared, I did not even blink. It was the most evil cry I have ever heard! Finally, it passed my house and slowly faded away! The next day I told my mother. You know, I didn’t believe in stuff like this, especially not La Llorona. After that night, I do. Source.
3) After the Rain: When I was eight years old, I lived in Mexico. Our house is at the top of a small hill. My grandparents (dad’s side) lived next to us. At the bottom of the hill lived a distant uncle with his daughter and grandkids. Through my uncle’s yard a crossed a small stream of water. It was almost dry up. It was about two feet wide and half a foot in height. This stream connected to a river about 60 feet away from his home.
The story began on a day after it rained. I was outside with my siblings and cousins playing on the streets. Running around, playing tag and jumping in puddles. My uncle, a skinny 60 year old, was taking care of us. As the sun started to go down it got colder, but it didn’t matter we were having fun. Around ten in the night. Something in the air changed. All of us (the kids) stopped in our tracks and looked around. It was as if our bodies were engulfed by freight. And then we hear it “ Ayyy MIS HIJOSSS!!!!” We are all shocked. We had grown up with the legend of La Llorona. (A women due to a broken heart killed her children by drowning them in a river. Her spirit now wanders around bodies of water looking for them.) “ Ayyy MIS HIJOSSS!!!!” We heard it again. We were all panicking but our bodies were frozen in place. This time my uncle must have heard it because he ran towards us with his machete. He moved his kids first and told them to go inside their house, but not to touch the stream of water. Since my siblings and I lived at the top he said he would take us. As we walked we heard it again. “ Ayyy MIS HIJOSSS!!!!” It was followed by a woman whimpering. My uncle must have seen our scared faces because he began distracting us with silly little tales from his youth and asking question. Once at our house’s entrance he told us to go inside and not come out until tomorrow morning. My mom went to talk to him. I assumed that he explained what happen, because the moment he left, my mom rush to our room. She tucked all of us into bed and began spraying holy water all around the room. She ignited a candle and began to pray. I don’t know how I feel asleep but I did. Since then whenever we were outside and the sun began to set we all rushed inside, because no one wanted to come face to face with La Llorona. (Sorry for any grammatical errors) Source.
4) Doomed in the Afterlife: When I was in the seventh grade, I had a frightening dream. I saw myself standing on a dark road with the only illumination coming from a dim streetlight. The ground was wet and in the distance, I could hear the sound of rain falling and the tap, tap, tapping of footsteps coming toward me. Peering into the darkness, I could make out a woman, dressed all in black with a dark lacy veil covering her face, moving toward me. Strangely, as the mysterious woman grew closer, so did the rain.
When the woman was about 15 feet in front of me, she looked over my shoulder. When I turned around to see what she was looking at, I saw a young child dressed in a white nightgown playing with a doll in the middle of a puddle of water. When I turned back to her, she was right in front of me. The veil was lifted, her eyes were abnormally wide, and her face was no more than three inches away from mine. Her terrifying eyes stared into mine dead on until I awoke in a panic. I looked toward the window – it was raining. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day, I shook off the dream and thought nothing more about it, until a year later. On that night, I was spending the night with my friend Veronica, who had also invited another friend named Sarah. In the course of the evening, Sarah, who is Hispanic, began to tell us some of the legends and ghost stories of the Mexican culture. When she began to tell the tale of La Llorona, I didn’t think anything of it at first. Then she began to tell of how the legendary spirit travels by water, dressed all in black or white and is most always seen wearing a veil. Sarah continued by telling us that La Llorona lifts her veil only to her “victims,” that in their afterlife, she has chosen to help her find the bones of her lost children.
Now, I constantly wonder if, in my afterlife, I will be forced to help her find the bones of her lost children. Source.
5) I Know What I Heard. This happened to me when I was about 11 years old. It was the 90's. I have lived my whole life in El Paso, Texas. The culture is rich in folklore and religious beliefs. Many Hispanic families have stories of the paranormal. One legend popular is the legend of the “Weeping Woman” aka La Llorona. The legend of La Llorona (pronounced “LAH yoh ROH nah”), Spanish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of Hispanic culture in the southwest since the days of the conquistadores. The tall, thin spirit is said to be blessed with natural beauty and long flowing black hair. Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and creeks, wailing into the night and searching for children to drag, screaming to a watery grave.
No one really knows when the legend of La Llorona began or, from where it originated. Though the tales vary from source to source, the one common thread is that she is the spirit is of a doomed mother who drowned her children and now spends eternity searching for them in rivers and lakes.
One night it just like any other night I lived in a trailer with my mom and dad. My youngest brother was staying with my aunt this night. I feel asleep watching Jay Leno as usual and when I woke up I was on the sofa in my living room. The time was 4:00 am which illuminated from the stove in the kitchen. The television was off and normally I had a light on but this time it was pitch black. I woke up and I heard a horrible screaming that was coming from far in the distance. The screaming was coming from a ditch that was a few feet away from my home. I heard it and I thought I was hearing things. I asked myself “am I dreaming”? Then I started to hear the animals outside howling and whimpering. These animals that I speak of are cats and dogs. As the screaming got closer the animals continued to cry. The screaming was something I have never experienced ever before. It sounded like I was in a big hallway and a woman was screaming her guts out down that hallway. Then in all the screaming I started to make out words. These words being said by whoever this was at 4am screaming their guts out shocked me. The woman said, "¡Ay, mis hijos!" (Oh, my children!).
In a huge panic I quickly got up from the sofa and ran to the kitchen which was right next to where I was asleep. I turned the closest light and looked around. The screaming didn’t stop. In fact the screaming only got louder and closer. I questioned my sanity at that moment. Was I going crazy or hearing things? Then I thought to myself “this is real and the animals are responding to it in a negative way.” So I did what any other 11 year old boy would do in a moment like this. I ran to my mom and dads’ room. I reached for my mom and shook her awake wildly. She woke up slowly and to my amazement the screaming faded away as she woke awake. I thought to myself “what the heck is going on?” I told my mother “mom do you hear that screaming and crying lady?” My mom was half asleep as she said, “go back to sleep it is most likely just your imagination.” I told her, “no this is real please listen don’t you hear her?” My mom quickly just said, “you are dreaming so go back to sleep it’s going to be ok”. By then the screaming had faded long away like if whoever was screaming knew that an adult is awake.
I was terrified as I returned to the living room and quickly turned on the television as I left most of the lights on as well. I didn’t go back to sleep until the sun came up. I couldn’t believe what I heard and witnessed. I was treated like a crazy person whenever I told my story. It got so bad that I kept my experience to myself. To this day I don’t care what people think of my experience. I know what I heard. A couple of years later it happened to me again. But that’s a whole other story that I will share later. Source.
6) It Did Not Stop Screaming: This was back during the fifth grade or so. I was out with my cousin who was one year younger than me just walking out after going to the store or something. I don't clearly remember there being an adult present, just us both, but I could be wrong. It's dark and we're walking down the sidewalk to my uncle's house after a day of god-knows-what. It could not have been any later than 9.
To paint the picture, we were walking southbound on the left side of the street. In front of us was the sidewalk illuminated by bright orange lights. The housing complex is at about 11-10 o'clock boarded by a brick wall. To our right however, there is a mound-row of dirt that goes parallel to the road. Somewhere behind it was another, much more run down housing complex that had absolutely no light for whatever the reason. Or, at least if there was, we never quite saw it due to how distant it was. Seeing its dark silhouette against a navy blue backdrop was admittedly pretty spooky and kind of cool.
So here we are, two fifth graders strolling home without a care in the world talking about one thing and the next in the pitch black of night. We're on the topic of scary stories where both my cousin and I attempt to scare the daylights out of each other. Eventually, he mentions "La Llorona" or "The Weeping Woman" from Mexican folklore. Being Hispanic, we both knew the stories and had a good laugh about it, poking fun at how stupid we thought the whole thing was. My cousin even said something along the lines of "Can you imagine running into her now?"
Then, I shit you not, from the dark houses in the distance, both him and I hear the most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard. It was female, sounding like some of those screams you hear in Halloween props, and being that it wasthat season, for a second I thought it was someone's decoration. Then it came again, much different this time. The freaky part was it sounded like the prop scream yet something did not feel right. It sounded real. If it was a recording, they must have had some pretty expensive speakers because it literally sounded like some poor woman was having her organs removed with a spoon.
My cousin and I looked at each other after the initial scream. There was some immediate teasing, but it soon died down as those screams continued. For the rest of our walk, whatever it was, did not stop screaming. I only remember them fading into the distance as we got closer to my uncle's house. The strangest thing was, never once did I feel genuinely scared. Even my cousin was acting as if it was the most normal thing in the world. We both knew it could not be a recording, yet neither of us panicked.
I'm in my twenties now, and I think back to that night and how creepy the whole experience was. I know I didn't imagine the scream or that night. I've been meaning to contact my cousin about it, but I fear he may not remember it. The creepiest part of all this is that I don't even remember the general area of where this all took place. My uncle moved about three different times before finally settling on a house.
I know this isn't the scariest story, but it sure is one of the most disturbing memories I have of my childhood that I've got no explanation for. Source.
7) The Tall Pale Woman: Growing up as a first generation Mexican-American, I would get my good share of legendas urbanas mexicanas, or Mexican urban legends, to keep my siblings and me in check. Besides the good’ol Cucui, which I quickly grew out of, La Llorona is the one that I still personally believe in. Especially since my own dad swears he saw her while growing up in rural Mexico. His experience goes as follows:
One night, my dad (age 9) joined his uncle (age 15) to buy some things from the convenience store. He remembers it was close to midnight since they were rushing to get to the store before it closed at that time. Once they got their things, they started to hurry home before the night fog got thicker. Casually talking and making their way down the street a tall figure suddenly appeared in front of them almost out of nowhere. My dad described her as having long messy hair with light tattered clothes and pale bony hands that met each other near her chest. Her eyes were dark and sunken in. He doesn’t remember if she saw them or not, but they didn’t stop to find out. As soon as they both passed her, they made a run for it.
As they ran, scared out of their minds, my dad exclaimed to his uncle how tall she was. He replied saying that she wasn’t tall at all, she was floating a few feet off the ground. After running about a mile back home, my grandpa was up waiting for them. When they both finished gasping for air, they frantically explained to my grandpa what they saw. He just shook his head and shrugged, “Por traviesos,” “For being troublemakers.”
My dad believes he saw her, the infamous Llorona. I believe he saw SOMETHING, regardless if it was her or not. But from the way he describes her and how the legend of La Llorona goes, I believe my dad was spared that night. Source.
8) The Woman in the Woods: Growing up as a kid in a Hispanic family, I was always surrounded by crazy haunted house stories and weird folk tales. Hispanic culture tends to lean into the superstitious side and takes it very seriously.
The first time I heard about La Llorona was from my grandmother. She was a very religious person who was up praying to God at 6 am every morning and never missed church. She told me that when she was a young girl she was staying at her Aunt’s house deep in the woods of Mexico. One night, from her second story window, she heard a woman crying from the trees. She tried to ignore it but the crying got louder and louder.
My grandmother looked out the window and saw a woman in a long white dress and blue pruned skin just standing there in the yard crying, “Oh Hijos Mios!” (Oh, my children!) Source.
Some La Llorona encounters have also been known to include visual or auditory evidence captured on film. For some quick bonus stories, watch the Top Scary Things video below of the Scariest La Llorona Sightings Found on the Internet:
Do you believe in La Llorona? Have you seen La Llorona? Share your thoughts and experiences with us!
~ Lindsay W. Merkel
