La Llorona (english version)

“No!” screamed Luna. “I don’t like it! I am not going to eat it. No way!” Luna hated the plate in front of her. Carne? No thanks. Arroz y frijoles? Yuck. And AGUA too?! Was she being grounded? Luna knew mamá had worked very hard on dinner, but she wanted conchas y champurrado now. Why did she have to eat all this icky stuff before getting to the good part? It just wasn’t fair, and Luna was not going to give in. “Hija, por favor, eat your food,” said mamá, “you need to eat healthy to grow strong.” Mamá sounded so defeated, but Luna wasn’t going to budge. “NO!,” yelled Luna as she flung her fork across the room, kicking and crying in her chair. “Mija, está bien,” a soft voice said from the kitchen. “Let me talk to her.” “Abuela!,” yelled Luna. Her grandma was her favorite person in the whole world, but even she wouldn’t be able to get her to eat all that nasty stuff. “I am not going to eat this. I just won’t!” “Mijita,” said Abuela, as she wiped Luna’s tears from her cheeks, “You need to remember to count your blessings. Not all kids in the world get to have a full plate like you.” “But I don’t like it,” pouted Luna. “You remind me so much of myself when I was young, you know,” said Abuela, “ When I was around the same age you are now, I didn’t like a lot of the food that mi mamá made for me. She tried so hard to make me different dishes, and I did not want them. I wouldn’t even give her a chance.” “Really?” asked Luna. “But you always finish your plate when we have dinner!” “Sí mija, pero I learned the hard way. I am going to warn you like my abuela warned me. You don’t want her to come for you.” “H-her?,” Luna asked. “Who’s her?” “Let me tell you about her. People call her La Llorona.” —-- “A long time ago, there was a woman that lived here in México. She grew up in a small home near the Xochimilco lake. Her parents were farmers that grew vegetables and sold them en el Centro, in what is now downtown Mexico City. There, she always saw rich women in their beautiful gowns and fancy carriages. She saw them with their husbands who would buy them anything they wanted. Since she was a young child, she had dreamed about living a life of luxury. As she got older, she became very beautiful so she had a lot of suitors. Humble farmers asked for her hand in marriage almost daily, but none of them would give her the luxurious life she wanted. She always turned them down. When her parents passed, she continued selling vegetables in el centro, hoping she would meet a wealthy man to marry. One day a very rich man came to her vegetable stand. Enchanted by her extraordinary beauty, he promised to buy her a big house, shiny jewels, and even her own carriage. He promised her that she would never need anything ever again. He presented her with an engagement ring that held the biggest, shiniest diamond she had ever seen. Impressed by all his money, she agreed to marry him. The woman had the wedding of her dreams. They served fancy foods and drinks to other rich folks. Her favorite part was her wedding dress. It was white and puffy, and covered with jewels that glistened in the moonlight. Her veil covered her from head to toe, and followed several feet behind her as she walked down the aisle. Soon after, the couple moved into a mansion and the woman found that she had whatever she wanted at the tips of her fingers. A few months after their wedding, the couple had two children. Over time, money completely changed this woman from humble beginnings. She became ungrateful for the things she had. She, like you and I, refused to eat what her servants would cook. She would throw the plates across the room and demand a better meal. The more money she had available, the more she would waste it on expensive jewels and clothes. One day, the woman and her two children returned home from shopping, only to find the husband sitting on their expensive couch with someone else. ‘I need to talk to you,’ said her husband. ‘Children, go up to your rooms.’ They did as they were told. The woman stared at the other person. It was a young and beautiful woman, just as beautiful as she once was. She had long, black hair and beautiful brown eyes. ‘This is my novia, my girlfriend’ her husband said, snapping her out of her thoughts. ‘I have fallen in love with someone else.’ The woman stared in complete shock. She looked down and noticed the novia was pregnant. ‘I have a child on the way’ he continued. ‘I need you and the children to get out of this house immediately.’ Before the woman had a chance to say anything, the servants directed her to gather her things and leave. In a panic, she packed as many jewels as she could. She also made sure to pack her wedding dress and veil, since they were her most beloved possessions. On the way out, with tears flowing down her face, the woman asked her husband: ‘Where are we to go now?’ ‘You still have your house in Xochimilco,’ he replied. ‘I will send someone once a month to give you money for the children. Goodbye.’ The woman returned to the lake completely defeated. The villagers all stared at her upon her return, and she could hear gossipping and giggling. It was so embarrassing. The woman waited and waited for her husband to send money for the kids, but no one ever came. She attempted to visit the mansion to confront her husband, but the house was empty. He had moved away and completely disappeared with his new family. ‘It’s fine’ the woman thought to herself. ‘I will just look for another rich man!’ The woman tried to find a new husband in El Centro, but all the rich men remembered how rude and ungrateful she had been when she had money. No one wanted to marry her. To feed herself and her children, the woman had to sell her jewels in El Centro, one by one. This kept the family fed for some time, but eventually the money ran out. The family went a whole week without any food. The children were so hungry that they begged their mother for something to eat. ‘We don’t have any more money!,’ the woman snapped at her children. ‘But mama, you still have that fancy white dress. Maybe we can sell it and get some food.’ The woman had kept her shiny wedding dress and veil, but she refused to sell them. They were the only beautiful things she had left. How dare they suggest such a thing?! ‘Go to sleep!’ she yelled at them. That night, the woman couldn’t sleep. She didn’t know if it was because she had not eaten in a week, or because of the lack of rest, but she felt so angry. ‘Those ungrateful brats,’ she said to herself. ‘How dare they ask me to get rid of my dress? I have given them everything. Everything!’ ‘And their father,’ she thought, becoming more and more enraged. ‘He ruined my life! I’ll show him not to mess with me. I’ll show all of them!’ So, in the middle of the night, the woman put on her wedding dress. The long sleeved, shimmering white gown was as beautiful as ever. She draped the long veil over her head and walked over to her sleeping children. ‘Hijos, levantense.’ she whispered. ‘Let’s go for a swim.’” —------- “A-a swim?! Why would they want to swim at night?” asked Luna with a shaky voice. This was getting scary, but abuela continued. —-------------- “‘Ay, mis hijos! Ay, mis hijos!’ The other villagers were awakened by the loud cries of a woman. One of the villagers came out of his house. ‘Who’s out there?! Is someone swimming in the lake?’ He walked outside with a lantern to investigate. There, he saw a woman standing in the water, drenched and dressed all in white. ‘Oh, my children!’ she cried. As he approached her, he saw the most dreadful sight he could ever imagine. ‘HELP! Please help!’ yelled the villager in a panic. ‘This woman drowned her children! —’ “Abuela! This is too scary!” yelled Luna, clinging to her chair. “Legend has it that, immediately after her children drowned, she snapped back to her senses. But it was too late,” said Abuela. “She wept and wept about losing her most prized possession- her children. She eventually died, but that doesn’t mean she’s gone. People call her La Llorona, the crying woman, and she still haunts the Xochimilco lake to this day. She appears in her wedding dress and veil, drenched in water, in the middle of the night. Desperate to hold her children again, she cries ‘ay, mis hijos, ay mis hijos’" “Mira, Luna” said Abuela, pointing out the kitchen window. “They say that when people are ungrateful, La Llorona pays them a visit. She doesn’t want anyone to suffer like she did, so she will remind you not to take what you have for granted. If you continue acting like this, you might hear her cry in the middle of the night." Luna was so scared! She looked at her grandma and slowly turned her head towards the window. “And if you don’t want to eat your food, or listen to me or your mamá, that’s okay. Just remember not to look out there, or one day you might see her standing in the dark, with water dripping from her beautiful white gown…’” All of a sudden, Luna had never felt hungrier in her life. THE END