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TheCryMovie's blog
La Llorona (the crying woman) has terrified Hispanics across the United States and Latin America for over five hundred years. Below is a historical timeline detailing her ascension as a living legend.
1502- In the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, the goddess Cihuacoatl takes the form of a beautiful lady draped in white garments. Throughout the night she cries out in misery, "Oh hijos mios...ya ha llegado vuestra destruccion. Donde os llevare?" (Oh my children...your destruction has arrived. Where can I take you?) Many believe that Cihuacoalt was speaking of the future conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.
1505- A girl child named La Malinche is born in the Aztec province of Coatzacoalcos of a noble Aztec family.
*Circa 1515- La Malinche is given to Mayan merchants for slavery. In addition to her mother tongue of Nahuatl (Aztec), she learns to speak Mayan.
*Circa 1521- La Malinche gives birth to two twin boys by Cortés. Cortés continues his conquests. The King and Queen of Spain, fearing that Cortés has betrayed them and is building his own empire, repeatedly ask him to return to Spain. He refuses, saying that if he leaves they will lose their new territories. The King and Queen send a beautiful Spanish lady to convince him to return
*Circa 1522- The Spanish lady seduces Cortés, convincing him to return to Spain with his two sons. Cortés tells La Malinche of his decision to return with his children and to leave her behind. La Malinche, now realizing the role she has played in helping Cortés massacre her people, prays to her gods for help. One of her gods appears to her and says, "If you let him take your children, one of them will return and destroy your people." The night before Cortés' departure, La Malinche escapes with the babies. Cortés' soldiers soon discover her absence and set out after her. Upon arriving at the lake that Mexico City now rests on, the soldiers surround La Malinche. Just as they are at the brink of capturing her, she pulls out a dagger and stabs her babies in the heart, dropping their lifeless bodies into the water. La Malinche lets out a heart-wrenching cry, "Oh, hijos mios." (Oh, my children)
*Circa 1531- La Malinche dies. Up to the time of her death she is seen and heard near the lake weeping and wailing for her children. She is given the name "La Llorona," the crying woman.
1531- The first apparitions of La Virgen de Guadalupe occur in Mexico.
1547- Hernán Cortés dies of dysentery. In a letter preserved in the Spanish archives, Cortés writes "After God, we owe the conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina (La Malinche)". While in Spain Cortés praises her name, in Mexico "Malinche" becomes a word denoting betrayal.
1550- The first documented appearances of La Llorona after La Malinche's death occurs in Mexico City. She is most often seen on the night of a full moon, wandering the streets wearing a white dress with a light veil covering her face. Her agonizing cries terrorize everyone who sees or hears her. Her last stop is always La Plaza Mayor where she lets out her most desperate, horrific cry, after which she vanishes into the lake.
1550 - present- Sightings of La Llorona spread throughout the most of the Americas with people in each town/city/country believing she is local to their own area, creating a powerful and passionate belief in this horrifying ghost.
1970s- Like many Hispanics in the U.S. and throughout Latin America, the director of , Bernadine Santistevan, is told stories of La Llorona-a woman who, betrayed by her husband, drowned her children out of revenge in a nearby river. The punishment for this horrific act: La Llorona's spirit is condemned to roam the earth for eternity, crying for her children. Bernadine, along with the other children in her small northern New Mexico town, is told that if she plays by the river alone or misbehaves, La Llorona will take her away.
1995- Susan Smith is found guilty of murder in the drowning deaths of her two sons by strapping them in their car seats and rolling the car into the John D. Long Lake in South Carolina. A portrait made of Smith is published where she is referred to as "A Modern Day Llorona"
1998-2003- Bernadine starts her search for La Llorona. Initially, she believes this ghost is from her home town in New Mexico. She soon discovers that La Llorona's reign of terror has blazed across Latin America and the United States.
In the end, Bernadine spends 5 years searching for La Llorona across the Americas-interviewing people who believe they have seen or heard her, collecting music, poems, and art work dedicated to her, and working with historians and Jungian psychologists who study La Llorona as a cultural phenomenon and universal female archetype.
2000- Bernadine creates a community website with some of the findings she has uncovered about La Llorona. To date, the website, LaLlorona.com, has been visited by millions and is being used by numerous schools and colleges across the U.S. as a teaching tool.
June 2001- Andrea Yates drowns her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub of her suburban Houston, Texas home. Yates claims that she heard voices.
March 2002- Andrea Yates is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Oct. 2002- A woman named Bernadine Flores drowns her two children and herself in a river near Pilar New Mexico.
2003- Bernadine writes a script about La Llorona titled , a contemporary supernatural thriller that includes much of the factual discoveries about La Llorona that she came across in her search.
2004- The Cry is shot in New York City and in northern New Mexico. Bernadine learns only a few days before shooting the key scene where La Llorona drowns her child that the river location she had selected is the same place that Bernadine Flores drowned her two children and herself.
May 2005- Brooke Shields' book "Down Came the Rain, My Journey through postpartum depression" is published.
2006-2007- The Cry is in post-production.
March 2006- Claudia, the post-production manager for The Cry, has a freak experience at work where tears of blood drip out of her eyes. In, La Llorona says, "Sisters. You're like me. You're fingers will scrape the bottom of the rivers searching for your child...and you will cry tears of blood."
May 2006- A screen test of a near complete version of The Cry is held in Santa Fe, NM where close to 2000 people stand in line for hours in the hope of attending the showing. A second unscheduled screening is held to accommodate the crowd, and The Cry is overwhelmingly well received.
July 2006- A Texas Jury overturns Andrea Yates' capital murder conviction and she is declared not guilty for reasons of insanity. Yates is committed to North Texas State Hospital.
End of 2006- The Cry is completed. Meanwhile, Bernadine receives numerous emails and phone calls from people throughout the U.S. who have heard of the Santa Fe test screening of The Cry and who want to watch the film.
Present- In the United States alone, an estimated 28 to 35 million Hispanics have grown up with stories of La Llorona, with this vengeful ghost considered by many to be the Latino world's "best kept secret." The majority of these "believers" are located in California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Illinois.
After many years searching for La Llorona, Bernadine is still convinced that La Llorona is real.
*Based on legend
Research by Bernadine Santistevan
Copyright 2000-2007 LaLlorona.com
Bernadine Santistevan - Writer/Director
The Cry is Bernadine's first feature film. Bernadine was born and raised in a remote area in northern New Mexico. She studied engineering at Stanford University and business at the Wharton School of Business. She left her job as a venture capitalist for GE Capital in New York City to pursue her dream of making a supernatural thriller based on the Latino legend of La Llorona (the crying woman).
Richard V. Lopéz - Director of Photography
Rick has filmed more than 60 feature films, short films, commercials and documentaries. His work has screened at festivals around the world, including the Berlin Film Festival, Sundance, and the Hamptons Film Festival.
Dean Parker - Music Composer
Dean's work spans the film, television, theater, and music industries. He works regularly with the world class film music composer, Carter Burwell, as well as with clients such as David Byrne, NBC and HBO. Dean's film projects include Being John Malkovich, Before Night Falls and Intolerable Cruelty.Carlos Leon Carlos, an actor adored by the U.S. Latino community, plays the lead role of Detective Perez, a man whose carnal desires result in him becoming La Llorona's "perfect prey." Carlos has worked extensively in film, television and on stage. His film credits include The Woodsman (Pedro), Anne B. Real (Juan Gimenez), Empire (Hector), The Big Lebowski directed by Joel Coen and Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies V (Webber).
Adriana Domínguez Adriana, a well known celebrity in Spain, plays the lead role of Maria, a young mother haunted by her ability to have visions of La Llorona's victims before they meet their tragic fate. The Cry is Adriana's first U.S. film. Her film credits include Bridge of San Luis Rey (Pepita), Noviembre (Alicia), El Regalo de Silvia (Ines) and El Sueno de Ibiza (Chica).
Christian Camargo Christian, most recently having received national fame as the nemesis to Dexter in the highly successful TV show of the same name, plays the role of Detective Alex Scott, a man with a dark secret from the past who is tormented by La Llorona. Christian is active in theater, television and stage. Credits include Dexter the Serial Killer (Rudy), K-19 The Widowmaker (Pavel), Lip Service (Stuart), Double Bang (Brian Jacobs), Skylight (Broadway play) and Kit Marlowe (play at the NY Public Theatre).
Miriam Colón Miriam, considered a matriarch among the U.S. Latino community, plays the role of Gloria, a curandera/witch who knows La Llorona's secrets. Miriam's numerous film credits include All the Pretty Horses directed by Billy Bob Thornton, Lone Star directed by John Sayles, Sabrina directed by Sydney Pollack and Scarface directed by Brian De Palma.
Kate Blumberg Kate plays the role of Judy Harwich, a woman who is cursed by La Llorona and forced to commit an unspeakable crime. Primarily a theater actress, Kate's credits include the plays Writer's Block and Second Hand Memory directed by Woody Allen, Dangerous Corner directed by David Mamet, and the films Serendipity (Courtney) and Picture This (Claire).
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