In the early 1500’s, La Llorana was the prettiest girl in a small town somewhere in Texas. Every man in town wanted to marry her but there was one lucky man she hoped to marry. He befriended the family and courted her for a few years before they were married. In 3 years of marriage they had two sons.
One day before the oldest boys birthday, La Llorana’s husband went out to "buy a present.” He said goodbye to his wife and children and left for town. He was never seen again. There were rumors in town saying that he had left his wife for a young mistress. Some say that he was murdered, but no one ever knew the true reason why he left his family.
Eventually, she got over the abandonment, and had her heart set on a rich farmer. They soon fell in love. She told her lover that she wanted to get married, but he said they could not. She was in shock, and asked him why, but he would not answer. Later, he confessed that he could not marry her because of her sons.
She was so furious she ran all the way home. She told her boys that they were going to go and take a bath down at the river. The boys slowly entered the shallow part of the Rio Grande, but she had other plans. She told the boys that they were now old enough to go in the deep end, and so they did. As she pretended to wash their hair she firmly pressed on their heads and pushed them under water, she didn’t let go till they were dead.
After watching the lifeless bodies of her precious sons float away down the river, she ran to her lover’s house and explained what she had done. He couldn’t believe it and was disgusted by her actions. He declared that he couldn’t love a murderer and told her never to come to his house again.
Suddenly, she realized what she had just done to her family. She ran back to the river and wept at the bank. She stayed there and wept and did not eat or drink or sleep until she finally died.
Her soul now walks the rivers edge weeping and looking for her precious sons.
Another Version
During the 1600’s a beautiful woman of Columbian culture named Maria lived in the town now known as Baker County, Fl. She lived in a farm house with her two children and her husband. Her husband was never home because he was always working the fields. One day when her husband didn’t return from the fields she thought the worst and in her grief she believed that she and her children must be with him forever. That night, she drowned her children in the bathing tub and then she then hung herself in front of the mantle of her once happy but lonely home.
Now they say if you drive down 229 South, where her farm house was off of Ernie Bryant Road, you can see her and her children wandering aimlessly in the fields in late august calling for her husband and their father. If someone who is in love dares look her in the eye they will die instantly of a heart attack!
Kim Yuce from Tampa, FL
Marissa from Delano, CA
Lindsey from Baker county, FL