OLWG #136- La Llorona

This week’s prompts are at the bottom. The words below are just practice, me retelling an old Mexican ghost story. Practice makes perfect.

Here’s how to play along, if you are unsure.

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It was a long time ago, mi hijos, long before New Mexico became a state; in the village of Bosque Tepeco, a young girl was born. She was named Maria and she lived with her Mamá in an adobe casa with dirt floors and no glass in the windows. Her mother worked in the Cantina so that she could pay the bills. No one was sure who her father was. As Maria grew, she became more beautiful from day to day.

One day a very rich and handsome man, Josué Obregón, passed through Bosque Tepeco and happened to catch a glimpse of Maria as she was bathing at the river. He was immediately smitten and stole her away to his fine hacienda outside Hierba del Cobre (a town which no longer exists).

For many years Maria and her husband tried in vain to conceive a child. Their failure to conceive strained their relationship and Don Obregón took to travelling. He carried on with other women in other towns and his absences from home grew longer and longer. One day he returned to Hierba del Cobre to find that his wife was with child. She gave birth to twins; boys. The boys’ father doted on his sons, for a time, but the fire he had once felt for Maria was now cold and his old habits soon returned. He would slip away for weeks or even months at a time.

One day when the boys were about five years old Don Obregón came home, with a younger woman, named Iliana. He introduced her to his sons and moved her into his house. Maria was hurt. She was furious. And, she snapped. She took her boys to the river and, in a rage, drowned them. When she realized what she had done she searched for her sons, but to no avail, The river currents had already carried them away. She drowned herself as well.

Now she is doomed to forever search for her lost sons. She wanders near rivers, wearing a white gown and a veil. She is known as La Llorona, (in English The Weeping Woman) and on dark nights you can hear her crying; alone and in despair. If you ever hear her, you must turn and run in the opposite direction. My Abuelo told me that she will sometimes mistake children out alone at night for her own, and kidnap them. When she realizes what she has done she drowns the innocent waifs.

She sifts the river bottom in perpetuity, searching for her boys.

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This week’s prompts are:

1. we’ve run out
2. Bird on the box
3. A one ring circus

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1. Go ahead and dive in, set your imagination free!

2. Write something big, Write something small,
   Write something
   Ready, Set, Go – you have 25 minutes, but if that is not possible, take as long as you need and, have fun!