La Llorona

La Llorona is the tale of the weeping woman. Once she was the envy of her New Mexico town, turning down suitors until she settled with a rancher and bore two kids. Then there’s two versions of the story. In one talke, as her beauty faded, the husband grew bored and spent more time with his sons and in the company of other women. She grew jealous and drowned them in the river. In the other version of the story, she was off cavorting with other men and wasn’t paying attention, and her sons drowned. In either case, it was her fault and her grief drove her to drown herself.

She now wanders the river looking for others to drown and serves as a cautionary tale told to children to keep them away from the water.