Local legend from where I grew up. There are many different variations pending on the region it is told.



The woman fell in love with a rancher who was not easy to settle, and had a nature as wild as the horses he would break. She was a beauty herself, and nearly unobtainable- so she played coy enough to got him interested. They did marry, and had children together. The rancher eventually becomes bored with them and abandons them, and in a fit of fury, the woman throws her children into the Rio Grande river. When she realizes what she had done, she tries to save them, only to drown as well. Her soul is now forever bound to the river for her crime- and she weeps in despair while searching for the souls of her children. Little kids are warned to never go near the edge, let alone close to dark, or La Llorona would mistake them for her missing children, and drown them to be with her.



That is the one commonly told where I lived in southern New Mexico. My abuela would always warn me to stay away from the river as well.