A5 La Llorona bookmark*
La Llorona aka the wailing woman, is a dark Mexican folk story about a woman driven to madness and kills her two children in a local river.
Driven by grief she then drowned herself in the same river.
Upon entering the afterlife she was told she could not enter heaven until she found the souls of her murdered children and brought them back with her. Unknown to her she was actually in Hell and the Devil had tricked her. Her kids were already in heaven but La Llorona returned to the moral world to wonder until she found her kids.
Stories differ, sometimes she merely lurks wailing by the rivers but other stories say she will kill children she has mistaken for her own. Parents have been know to threaten their children with La Llorona, 'if you misbehave, La Llorona will get you.'
La Llorona has also been used as a warning children about playing near rivers or after dark.
I decided to do the moment after her murder to express the grief and insanity she displayed, rather than the skeletal monster she becomes. That may be a piece for the future...
A very atmospheric piece created by layering several cuttings of the lino block.
*image of original reduction lino print by Minifi / Fiona