In this series that I have taken to talk about Venezuelan myths, legends and mysteries, I will talk about the stories of some ghosts in the form of women who belong to the Venezuelan popular imagination. It is believed that many of these stories are real and that the ghosts of these women really cross the corners of Venezuela. The idea is to choose and talk about the best-known stories, that's why I'd like to start with the legend of La Llorona, one of the best-known stories in our country.

A Venezuelan who has not heard the story of La Llorona and who as a child has not been afraid of this woman, is not Venezuelan. We have all grown up listening to the story of this ghost that comes out at night, which is characterized by its heartrending weeping and wandering in search of their children. If you are not Venezuelan, be prepared to read the most famous mystery story of my country; and if you are, you will surely remember some anecdote referring to this character. Let's start:

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One of the legends says that La Llorona was a Spanish woman, who lived in the colony in a town and had several children with an Indian. Supposedly, the family became very angry when they learned of this affront, since it was said at that time, that the indigenous were inferior, savage, diabolical beings and that they did not possess a soul; So the brothers of the woman, to hide the dishonor, decided to kill her children and marry her to a Spaniard. The story tells that the woman went crazy of the pain and that she escaped every night of her house, with her hair loose, barefoot and with a long dress, crying for the death of her children.

There is another more terrible version, which says that it was the same woman who killed her children with the belt of her dress and that after ending the children's lives, she committed suicide and for that reason she wanders, like a soul in sorrow, along the roads seeking forgiveness from God.

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There are many people who live in the Venezuelan fields who have declared and certified having heard and seen La Llorona. They say that the woman wears very heavy chains, others say that the children are the ones that have been tied to her body. Some claim to have seen her face and say she is a beautiful woman; others, on the other hand, say that one can not see the face. What everyone agrees on is the heartrending weeping that comes out of that woman's soul. A sound that resounds, that makes the skin stand on end and that supposedly makes the animals howl and go out in terror. La Llorona wanders saying: Oh, my children, oh, my children ...

My maternal grandfather, before Chavez came and expropriated some land, had a large farm where coffee, oranges and sugarcane were grown, as well as avocados and pineapples. When I was a girl and went to visit my grandfather, it was normal for me to stay with my family inside the house, but when I was growing up, I liked to walk around the farm and its surroundings. In one of those many times that we vacationed at the farm, we decided to visit an area called El Playón. El Playón was a mighty river, dark in color and with attractive, large, smooth stones. When we got there, we found that there was a group of people from the town bathing. Immediately, we approached and began to share with them. When it was 6 o'clock in the afternoon, we saw how they started to leave the river and make the sign of the cross in their chest. We asked one what was happening and the man said: There is La Llorona.

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Obviously we also left the river, but with the doubt of knowing if what they were saying was true. When we arrived at the farm we commented to my grandfather and he told us that there were times when you could hear La Llorona crying and that the only way to know if it was her was to go back to Playón and look for some trace. The next day, my cousins, my sisters and I went early to the river to look for the clue my grandfather was talking about. After two hours and almost back to the farm, among the big stones that were on the shore of those dark waters we found a hair many meters long. It was so long that we saw where it started, but not where it ended. That was the proof that my grandfather said and that we were looking for. Indeed, the night before, La Llorona had been there looking for her children.

Just like this legend, there are others that have a woman as their central figure. I would like to share with you, in some future posts, these interesting stories.

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