Many versions of the tale associate La Llorona with evil.
Some versions describe her visits to lustful young men whom she
lures to their deaths. Other versions describe her efforts to steal
living children who are out by the river late at night, mistaking
them for her own dead children. Because some versions imply that
the children are disobeying their parents, parents often use the
story to frighten children into obedience. In some versions, however,
La Llorona is a sympathetic figure deserving of pity. In others,
she is a malevolent force to be feared. Gabriel and Narciso ask
the mob to have mercy on Lupito because he was mad when he killed
the sheriff. The connection is that Lupito and La Llorona were both
insane when they murdered, and thus they cannot be held accountable
to rational moral judgment.
The pairing of La Llorona and Lupito in Antonio’s dream
shows that he is beginning to deal with morally ambivalent issues.
Antonio wants to make moral sense out of Lupito’s death, but easy
answers elude him. The figure of La Llorona expresses Antonio’s
anxieties about growing up, about disobeying his parents, and about
wandering by the river. His dream ends with the voice of María mourning that
her son is growing older, an apparition that phrases Antonio’s anxiety
about leaving his mother in her own voice. Antonio is developing
an independent self-consciousness and learning to combine elements
of both his parents’ heritages. As a young boy, though, he is still
ambivalent about the consequences of change.
