La Llorona: una Leyenda Mexicana
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Program Note
La Llorona: una leyenda mexicana. "The Weeping Woman: a Mexican legend." This is a programmatic piece of a story that many Hispanic families pass down from generation to generation. A story that frightens naive children and wise adults alike. La Llorona is often told around the crackling of a campfire, on long nightly car rides, and, especialmente, in the safety of ones bedroom, just as sleep creeps in.
The story goes that there was a beautiful woman, Maria (the name changes depending on who is telling it) who lived en un pueblo pequeño. She was young y hermosa, and she knew it. She would not look at the other men in town, for they were all bellow her own looks. It was not until a handsome ranchero came into town who caught her eye. Soon the two were happily married, and had two children. However, as years went by, the ranchero grew restless and would go out for months at a time. When he would return, he had the perfume of other women on him, and would only come to visit his children. Maria hated him for it, and grew resentful towards her own children.
One evening, while walking with her children by the riverbank, the ranchero approached Maria in a carriage with another woman. He told his children that they were all going to leave the town, and live elsewhere with his new, elegant, wife.
The story goes that Maria, in a fit of rage, threw her own children into the river! As they disappeared down stream and beneath the water, drowning, she ran down the bank of the river, reaching out for them. But she was too late.
The next morning, the villagers found Maria dead on the bank of the river. They laid her to rest where she had fallen.
That first night since Maria’s burial, the villagers heard the sound of crying down by the river: "Aye, mis hijos" ("Oh, my children"). And they saw a woman walking up and down the bank of the river, dressed in a long white robe, the way they had dressed Maria for burial. From then on, she was no longer known as Maria. No. She was known as La Llorona. The Weeping Woman.
This guitar piece is a tribute to my own Mexican identity, and the restless nights that the story has brought me and my fellow Latinx/Chicanx comunidad. This piece is a programmatic retelling of the legend. Within the piece, you will hear the night bells toll, sometimes in dissonance. You will hear as the ranchero comes to town and the courting of the two. You will hear Maria become enraged. The children drown. The reality set in. You will hear La Llorona, and her tears, as she cries for her children.
It is just as much a story as it is a warning.
Cuìdate y gracias.