The folklore of La Llorona originated from the Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl weeping for her children

Before she became the 'Weeping Woman' of Spanish folklore, the figure was known as Cihuacoatl, a powerful Aztec deity associated with childbirth and war. Early Spanish chroniclers like Bernardino de Sahagún recorded that in the years before the conquest, a woman was heard crying at night, 'My children, where shall I take you?' This was later interpreted as a divine omen of the fall of the Aztec Empire.