Believing darkness exists doesn’t extinguish the light

Believing darkness exists doesn’t extinguish the light
                        

The other week a movie was released in the theater called "The Curse of La Llorona." I like — no, scratch that — I love horror movies. I simply state the facts as they are and present them to you with no apology. Some people like comedies, which I never see in the theater. Some like action or drama. I like horror. That doesn’t mean I don’t see other genres, but we all have a favorite.

I like sitting in a darkened theater, shivers traveling up my spine and a tale being spun like a fine ball of yarn. My senses are heightened, and I fully immerse myself into what’s being shown on the screen. If you can fill me with dread and set my hair on end, you have done your job as a filmmaker.

We attended the movie I mentioned above with our son and his girlfriend when they visited for Easter. La Llorona is a Mexican legend, the bogeywoman for an entire country, if you will.

She is what the children fear is hiding in their closets and under their beds, who they dream about when monsters are lurking. There’s been much written on her, and most often she’s tucked away under the title “legends and fables.” But if you grew up in Mexico or in a Latino household in the U.S., you know differently.

I bring up this tale because I’ve written about her, delved into her meaning and heard enough stories about her to make me shiver at her name. I can say with the utmost confidence those that have caught glimpses of her believe she’s real.

In the book about my husband’s life, the one I’ve written and completed and have yet to get published, La Llorona has an entire section. That’s because my husband’s stepdad has seen her, his brother and mom have heard her, and I wrote about it.

They speak about her in hushed tones because the spiritual realm is something they don’t take lightly. It exists and is handled thusly, with belief and knowledge. Where we skirt around the issue here in the U.S., they handle straight on.

When I heard they were making a movie about her with competent directors and producers, I was very excited. There have been numerous movies made about her, none very good. We enjoyed this movie as it was more realistic than most.

It hit us close to home, allowing for retellings and stories spun out in the darkness of the car as we drove home. It provided us with some jump scares and escalofrios (goosebumps) and good, solid conversation about legends and what they mean. We liked the movie.

But if you want a retelling of a true story, one that happened to my husband when he was missing as a child, then hop over and read about it. I’ve released the excerpt I’ve written on La Llorona, and it’s on my website at http://melissakayherrera.blogspot.com/2019/04/la-llorona-excerpt.html.

I believe most legends have some basis in reality: an unknown creature sighted (Big Foot), a strange water creature previously unknown (Loch Ness Monster), a rabid animal with mange (Chupacabra) or an ethereal wisp of a white dress on a woman’s form walking forlornly beside rivers in Mexico (La Llorona).

You cannot brush off what you don’t know simply because you think it can’t exist. Weavers of stories over time and long-held beliefs combine to tell us stories that allow our minds to expand into realms not thought possible.

How can we not believe that what we see in front of us, and in shadowy places at night, doesn’t exist? Or that what you haven’t seen with your own eyes can’t be true because it seems silly? How will the light win over the darkness if we don’t allow the darkness to exist? Let me tell you a little tale …


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