***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 11:04:37 PDT
   [From]: "Jose Roca" <columnadearena@hotmail.com>
     [To]: forum1@hkw.kbx.de
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] La Llorona

Dear Karin:  the story I remember from when I was a kid goes like this:  
there was a woman who had several children, and for some reason I can't seem 
to recall she killed them all and buried their corpses.  God punished her 
and ordered her to recover all the bones.  She managed to recover all of 
them except for the little last bone of the little finger of one of the 
children.  Since then, she wanders around at night, wailing (La llorona, as 
you know, means "the wailer").
When we were kids (and especially when we were camping or in a "finca" in 
the countryside, we were told this story, which was all the more scary 
because she suppossedly killed little children at night to cut of a little 
finger to see if it matched the lost one.
Take into notice that I am recalling from memory, so if you need a more 
accurate version, I can check it out.
Abrazo, J.