Listen here:
"La Llorona" by Nuvia Crisol Guerra. Source: www.artasauthority.com
Human beings love to tell stories. And myths are the ultimate in storytelling.
A good myth has stood the test of time, and somehow, tens or even hundreds of years later, the story continues to have meaning for those who tell it.
La Llorona is one such myth.
The story of the weeping woman has been told since the time of the Spanish conquest, all over Mexico and the American Southwest. Today, wherever Mexicans and Mexican-Americans live, the myth continues.
In a special collaboration between National Radio Project and the U-C Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, student producer Beth Hoffman brings us a look at the myth of La Llorona as told in Oakland, California today, and tells how its meaning has grown and changed over time.
Featuring:
Alicia Diaz, Samuel Martinez, Cecilia Rodriguez, Luz Salazar, Monica Pasqual, Florencia Luna, Cristian Luna.
Executive Producer: Tena Rubio
Contributing Producer: Beth Hoffman
Producer: Andrew Stelzer
Associate Producer: Puck Lo
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman
Associate Director: Khanh Pham
Production Coordinator: Elena Botkin-Levy
Intern: Kiesha Thomas
Music:
“La Llorona” by Lila Downs off Border (La Lina)
“La Llorona” by Blame Sally on Blame Sally
“La Llorona” by Frank Corrales
“La Llorona” by Voodoo Glow Skulls
“La Llorona” by Muna Zul
“La Llorona” by DJ Toshiro
“La Llorona” by Onda Nice
“La Llorona” by Gilda Cruz-Romo
“La Llorona: the Crying Woman” by Los Cameros de Mi Valles
“La Llorona” by Enrique Delgado
“La Llorona” by Pablo Castano
“La Llorona” by Sones de Mexico Ensemble
“La Llorona” by Volano
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Llorona
Tags: art and culture, stories
As a Norteamericano, I can’t help but thinking of the Susan Smith and Andrea Yates cases when I hear about La Llorona. It almost makes me wonder if there wasn’t some historical Llorona who actually lived once, centuries or perhaps millennia ago, and that maybe, just maybe, there is the tiniest real-life grain of fact beneath all the myth and legend? Of course, we’ll never know, but it’s interesting to speculate on.
This is the first “Llorona” rock in spanish video! check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siy0F2Oi2w0
I actually encountered La Llorana some thirty-three years ago on the banks of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, but I had no idea at the time what was happening. I held my infant granddaughter in my arms as her parents took a quick swim, when suddenly I was enveloped by a force, a voice in my head, telling me, compelling me, to throw my grandchild in the river. Terrified, I clung to the little one, resisting. This was a totally foreign experience that left me terribly shaken, but unable to speak about it for some time. When I did reveal the horrifying experience to my daughter a year later, she told me of the legend of La Llorana.