The myth of La Llorona appears repeatedly in Latin American traditions. This figure is sometimes assimilated to that of the widow, so that it is often difficult to distinguish between the two. Depending on the place, the name will also change. Some of the best-known variants are La María Pardo, La Turumuna, and La Sayona.
In Mexican traditions, she is said to be the ghost of a woman who took her own life after drowning her children. It is said that she weeps as she searches for her little ones along the courses of rivers; thus, in her crying, if one listens carefully, the words “¡Ay, mis hijos!” (“Oh, my children!”) can be made out. She is also associated with La Malinche, the indigenous woman who was Hernán Cortés’s favored mistress, considered a traitor by the indigenous people. In this version, the cry of “¡Ay, mis hijos!” would be La Malinche’s lament for the fate of the Mexicans, the fruit of the mestizo race she helped to create.
In Colombia, La Llorona appears as a woman dressed in a tattered and dirty tunic, with a gaunt face and eyes reddened from weeping. She carries a dead child in her arms and goes out to frighten people with her crying on full-moon nights along streams and rivers. She may also appear in towns. She is accused of having killed her child, as in the Mexican version. Her weeping thus seems to say: “¡Aquí lo eché, aquí lo eché, ¿dónde lo encontraré?” (“Here I threw him, here I threw him, where will I find him?”).
In the Argentine version, La Llorona presents herself as a woman without a face—and sometimes also without feet—dressed entirely in white, who moans through the nights. Her crying foretells misfortune, and dogs go mad as she passes. She can bring illness or death to the sick. She is also fatal to those who cross her path; she can kill them or make them ill. La Llorona retreats when confronted with the cross formed by a knife or a silver crucifix.
In Costa Rica, La Llorona is a woman who walks along the banks of rivers. Her appearance is wretched, and she is always weeping and moaning.