la llorona

This year I have the pleasure of teaching some native Spanish speakers. During class I am able to clarify questions by rephrasing information in Spanish and I can facilitate the sharing of their language. These students share the Spanish translation for words that we come across in stories and we are able to do fun activities like count in Spanish as an entire class.

Yesterday afternoon I was waiting with one of my students and his sister at the end of the school day. In the time that we were sitting outside before their dad came to pick them up his sister asked me if I had heard of la llorona. Thanks to my time in Costa Rica I could honestly say that yes, I had heard of la llorona.

For those of you that do not know, la llorona is a folklore throughout Central and South America. La llorona translates to "the crying woman." La llorona wanders stream and river beds crying out for her lost children. While I was talking to these two children, the conversation evolved toward a discussion about the differences between the Mexican version of the story (their dad is from Mexico and they spend summers there) and the Costa Rican version of the story.

In Mexico, la llorona wanders the river bed crying for her two children, a boy and a girl. The woman has lost her children. My student's sister informed me that she had heard two different versions at this point. In one, the woman had murdered her children; in the other they had been kidnapped, or taken from her in some way and she wanted to find them.

In Costa Rica, la llorona also wanders river beds crying for her child. In this version there is only one child, and if my memory serves correctly she threw her child into the river rapids because they would not stop crying. In return she cannot stop crying as she searches the river banks for her missing child.

It is moments like this one that remind me how fortunate I have been to lead the life that I do and to have had the experiences that I have had. Thanks to learning about la llorona from my Language and Culture Facilitator during Peace Corps training, and having the legend reinforced through conversations with my students in Costa Rica. Yesterday I was able to bring those experiences with me into a conversation with my student and his sister here and build stronger relationships based on a mutual understanding.