La Llorona in "Women Hollering Creek"

Cleofilas ponders the fate of La Llorona, the weeping woman, who drowned her children and believes that she is calling to her. Cleofilas must escape the domestic violence of her household through the telenovelas. But there is a desperation in her life, in the monotony of taking children, of fearing her husband's abuse. And tis desperation is demonstrated in her relating to the La Llorana as she cares for her baby outside. She "wonders if something as quiet as this drives a woman to the darkness under the trees." The danger in silence of her outside environment, driving her towards La Llorona's fate, parallels the silence that Cleofilas resorts to keep herself safe from societal norms, from her husband. She becomes withdrawn and she dies a death but still lives. It won't be until she can break out of her silence, until she can break the cycle of abuse that she will be safe from the call of la llorona.

Amber Bissell