A retelling, in parallel English and Spanish text, of the traditional tale told in the Southwest and in Mexico of how the beautiful Maria became a ghost.

A study of the legend of La Llorona, the ghost of a woman whose wailing is thought to be an omen of death. The author has woven together the many variations of the legend he discovered in interviewing residents of many New Mexico towns.

La Llorona (The Crying Woman) is a sad and haunting tale from Mexico. Parents have told the story for hundreds of years to misbehaving children and to guard against vanity. Some say the story is about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a native Mexican woman who served as his translator. Her loss can be compared to the loss of native Mexican culture after the Spanish conquest.

AY-EEEE! A spooky howl pierces the dark night. Is it the wind? Or is it the ghost called La Llorona? La Llorona is said to haunt moonlit roads and riverbanks, crying for her lost children. Before she became a ghost, La Llorona was a beautiful young woman named Maria. But Maria’s wish for wealth led her to doom. Read this haunting tale to find out more.

In this powerfully eerie tale by Lucinda Ciddio Leyba, the legend of La Llorona is recast as the tale of a witch intent on doing evil in modern Santa Fe. By the light of the full moon, La Llorona is released from her earthly tomb. Cursed with the memories of her past, she becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was taken from her and preys on Santa Fe's innocent citizens. One of the unwittingly haunted is Christina, a young mother caught up in the ancient tradition of curanderas and witches. As she slips dangerously into the dark recesses of La Llorona's twisted mind, Christina becomes desperate to protect her own children from the terrifying madness, and must find a way to stop the evil that possesses her before she loses her sanity and everything she holds dear.

A collection of stories by Sandra Cisneros, the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street and the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The lovingly drawn characters of these stories give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border with tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

"How is it that there are so many lloronas?" A haunting figure of Mexican oral and literary traditions, La Llorona permeates the consciousness of her folk community. From a ghost who haunts the riverbank to a murderous mother condemned to wander the earth after killing her own children in an act of revenge or grief, the Weeping Woman has evolved within Chican@ imaginations across centuries, yet no truly comprehensive examination of her impact existed until now. Tracing La Llorona from ancient oral tradition to her appearance in contemporary material culture, There Was a Woman delves into the intriguing transformations of this provocative icon. From La Llorona's roots in legend to the revisions of her story and her exaltation as a symbol of resistance, Domino Renee Perez illuminates her many permutations as seductress, hag, demon, or pitiful woman. Perez draws on more than two hundred artifacts to provide vivid representations of the ways in which these perceived identities are woven from abstract notions—such as morality or nationalism—and from concrete, often misunderstood concepts from advertising to television and literature. The result is a rich and intricate survey of a powerful figure who continues to be reconfigured.