La Llorona # 4

1: A young, very beautiful, but also very poor girl is seduced by a wealthy young man. When she becomes pregnant he abandons her. When the child is born she discards it by throwing it into a watercourse. Shortly afterward she dies. When she appears at the Gates, St. Peter tells her that, because she lived a blameless life save for her one indiscretion, she will be allowed to enter Heaven—but only if she brings with her the soul of her child. She is condemned, therefore, to wander watersides, calling “¡Mi niño! ¡Mi niño!” in search of the soul of the child she cast away until she finds it. 


2: There was a woman with a son and daughter whose husband had abandoned her. Desperate, poor, and hungry the woman decided that her children would be better off with God. So she took them to the edge of the river and dropped them in and they drowned. Realizing what she had done, and unable to save her children, she herself jumped in and drowned. Now they say that at night you can hear her sobbing and wailing for her children: "Mis niños...donde están mis niños?" 


3: Once a poor man was married to a beautiful woman who lived in his village. The couple was very much in love, but the man insisted that they were too poor to have any children. When he found out his wife was pregnant, the man was very angry. He told the woman they could not keep the child. After the birth of his son, the man drowned the child in the river. His wife, too weak from giving birth to get up from the bed, pleaded in vain with her husband to spare the life of her child. Several more sons were born to the couple, and the poor man drowned every one. The day the poor man took his fifth child to the river, his wife followed even though she was still weak and bleeding from giving birth. When he threw the child in the river, the woman went in after her son, determined to save the boy even though she did not know how to swim. The woman and her baby were swept away by the current and they both drowned. The very next night, the woman's spirit returned to the river beside her home, wailing and searching for the sons she had lost. At first, the poor man was terrified by the spirit of his wife. He begged her to return to the spirit realm. But she did not hear him. Night after night, the woman returned to the river, wailing and wringing her hands in her grief. The poor man became angry. But he could not stop the ghost of his wife from searching for her sons. Finally, the sound of the wailing woman drove the man mad. He grabbed a knife and jumped into the river after the spirit to kill her. But the poor man did not know how to swim. The current swept him away and he drowned. From that day to this, the spirit of La Llorona -- the wailing woman -- still haunts the waters and lakes, weeping and wailing and searching for her sons.


4: Once there was a widow who wished to marry a rich nobleman. However, the nobleman did not want to raise another man's children and he dismissed her. The widow was determined to have the nobleman for her own, so the widow drowned her children to be free of them. When she told the nobleman what she had done, he was horrified and would have nothing more to do with her. As she left him, the widow was overcome by the terrible crime she had committed and went to the river, looking for her children. But they were gone. She drowned herself and her spirit was condemned to wander the waterways, weeping and searching for her children until the end of time.


1, 4, and 2 both have her killing her children, but in 1 she does it because she feels they would be better off dead, in 4 she does it to marry the nobleman, and in 2 she does it because her husband left her. In 3 she doesn't kill her children, her husband does. She then drowns trying to save them.  In 1 she is told that the only way she can enter heaven is if she brings the soul of her child with her, and in 2 and 4 she searches for them out of guilt. In 3 she is searching for the children her husband killed. All follow the same basic outline, with 3 being the one most different. 1 seems to be a more religious version, and 2 seems to be version that more people could relate to. 4 seems to be the version that is less relatable, but still understandable in some strange, perverse way.