Shannon ParksFollow

Date Collected

11-2017

Place item was collected

Collector/ informant apartment -Logan, Utah

Informant

Christine Cole

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Christine Cole is my college roommate and friend. She is 21 years old and is studying elementary, early childhood, and special education at Utah State University. She was in born Salt Lake City, Utah and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico When she was two years old. Christine is an active member of the LDS church. Her mother is also LDS, but her father is Methodist. Throughout high school Christine played the oboe and saxophone in concert and marching bands. Christine has a deep interest in all things supernatural and aspires to go ghost hunting. Her other interests include reading, volunteering, and all things comic book.

Context

Christine first told me this story late one night near the week of Halloween. We were discussing supernatural stories from our childhood and which ones we believed and which ones we did not. The story was too spooky for her to continue telling and she agreed to tell it to me again another day. Two weeks later we sat down for her to tell me the complete story. We sat in my bedroom with as many lights on as possible, leaving enough time before bed to rid our minds of the story. The story of La Llarona is typically told in a Mexican family setting. It is told as a story to the children and is intended to be passed down. Many people in the area already knew the story, but it was continually told in conjunction with other regional legends such as “el Chupacabra.” Almost every time the story was told by a friend’s grandmother or abuela, according to the informant. The informant herself is not Latina, but she had a number of close friends from whom she heard the story who are. The story is told with such frequency that it common for the non-Latino population to be familiar with the story of La Llarona. While it was not discussed in her home, the informant’s family knew the story of La Llarona.

Text

So, we have the Rio Grande where I live. I was first told this story by um --my friend’s abuela—I think.

There was this lady and her husband was a Spanish soldier of some type. They had two kids. The husband went off to war and she found out that he cheated on her. – I can slow down of you need. –

So, she took the kids down to the river and drowned them and herself. Now her ghost haunts the riverbanks at sundown. If you are there, especially if you are a child -she is likely to attack you, thinking that you are her child.

When I as in middle school—7th or 8th grade maybe-- I had a friend who went to the riverbank one evening and returned with fingernail marks on his shoulder with blood. It was as if someone had grabbed him. I am not sure if he was fucking with me or not, but I definitely believe in La Llarona.

Texture

As Christine told this story she was noticeably frightened. She began to speak quickly, as if to get it over with and was slightly fidgety. It was obvious from both the tone of her voice and her words that she is absolutely convinced that La Llarona is real. She spoke with a normal volume that did not change throughout the story.

Course

Introduction to Folklore, History 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Revenants

EAD Number

2.1.3.1

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