Away With Words

The true story of la Llorona

Cihuacoatl was the Mexica (Aztec) goddess of childbirth. She watched over the woman who had died while giving birth. She wore a long white robe over a coat and a shirt. Her long black hair covered her head. With Quetzalcoatl she helped create the People of the Fifth Sun.

Cihuacoatl was the mother of the god Mixcaotl and abandoned him at a crossroads shortly after his birth. Not long after that she began to regret her decision and began to weep. She went back to the spot to retrieve him, but he was gone. Tears fell from her eyes and her weeping grew stronger. All that she found was a sacrificial knife. Again she began to cry and her weeping grew even stronger.

Cihuacoatl’s sadness was so strong and her tears were so many that they began to fill the lake Xochimilco. She was so regretful at the abandonment of her son that she refused to leave the lake area. During the night people who ventured near the lake could hear her crying and screaming for her lost son Mixcoatl. “Oh my son! My son, my son!” she would weep. There at the tear filled lake Xochimilco Cihuacoatl would mourn for her lost child. She would not leave and began to haunt the place weeping for the son that she had abandoned.

Because of her atrocious action she became the patron of the Cihuateteo who are Mexica women who have died in child birth. Cihuacoatl also became the patron mother of the people and would care for the children of the Mexica and warn them when danger is near. And so she did when a great danger from the east drew near. When some men were near Lake Xochimilco they began to hear weeping. Out from the water came a woman dressed all in white with a head full of long black hair. She began to cry saying, “Oh my children! Oh my children! Your end is near. Where shall I take you?” The men were so frightened that they fled and did not return.

The men had ran back to the city and to the emperor Moctezuma. They relayed to the emperor what they had seen. The emperor and the priests of Cihuacoatl were all struck with fear for they knew of the prophecy of her appearance and the sixth omen that foretells the fall of their empire. The prophecy went as so:

“Strange men,  wiser and older than us, will come from the East and subdue your people and yourself, and there will be many tears and great sorrow and your people will disappear. They will devour and humiliate our gods by other gods more powerful.”

Not long afterwards they saw Cihuacoatl in the streets of the city crying out for her children, the Children of the Fifth Sun. They heard her crying, “Oh my children, oh my children! Where you go? How will you escape the coming doom?”