Anita Marie's Chamber of Horrors Challenge

( Fear by Goya )

Here are two places for you to visit:
What tales will they inspire? What poems or artwork will you bring back?
I wonder

THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA AND THE BLOODY BOX OF EL PASO, TEXAS

When I was a young child growing up in El Paso, Texas, a dusty desert city right up along the Mexican border, I heard many different and fascinating legends, ghost stories, and superstitions. The area is very old and rich with folklore, and a very bloody history that lends itself to all kinds of interesting tales! I have many I can share with you, but this one is probably my favorite…

This is the story I heard as a child that scared me more than anything else could – the story of La Llorona. Just saying the name gives me chills to this day… La Llorona (pronounced LA YO-RO-NA) literally translates into “The Crier,” which is exactly what this spook is said to eternally do. Part sorrowful banshee, part angry spirit, part cursed creature, La Llorona is known to almost every Latin culture; the first story dates back to 1550! There seems to be different version according to region, but the stories are all centered around a woman who murdered her two small children hundreds of years ago. This is the version that is prevalent where I come from.....

http://www.weirdus.com/stories/TX01.asp




La Llorona Is Real
In a town even smaller than mine in New Mexico, not too far from where I grew up, the younger brother of a friend was playing next to the Rio Grande river and ended up drowning. My friend's family swears to this day that it was La Llorona that killed him.

I realized that there's a lot of superstition in Northern New Mexico, but to people all over the U.S. and Latin America who I spoke to about La Llorona, the one thing almost all of them say to me is "she's real." After ten years of doing research on La Llorona all over the world and making my film, The Cry, now...more than ever...I know La Llorona's real.
Do you believe?

http://www.thecry.typepad.com/thecry/