The folklore of Spanish America is full of exciting accounts of a wandering, shrieking, tormented spirit called La Llorona, the 'Wailing Woman.' Her eerie spine-chilling cry was said to be an omen of death. This is the first serious account of the frightening tale that has fascinated people for generations. Ray John de Aragón, an expert on Spanish folklore, traditions and myths, traveled throughout the villages and byways of New Mexico searching out the roots of this very popular Spanish phantom. What he found was that every person he listened to had a different version. They sometimes placed her in their own towns as having been a local girl who had lived, loved, and then died a tragic death. She then arose, according to hearsay, and now she searches throughout the countryside for the children she lost in a watery grave. Some villagers even took him to a nearby river or arroyo to show him where La Llorona and her children drowned, but they always cautioned, 'Don't come here late at night because she will appear to you crying, and she will follow you as you try to get away.' The author then took the threads of the stories he heard and has woven them in a full length study of this famous ghost. Noted folklorist Pedro Ribera Ortega called this book in a review, 'The tragic mythic love/ghost story laid out to scare even the bravest of readers.'

The Legend of La Llorona

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Ray John de Aragón

Fantasy

Sunstone Press

Willa Cather, in the historical novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, depicts Padre Antonio Jose Martinez as an unscrupulous backward rogue priest and Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy as a civilizing, heroic and monumental figure. Countering Cather's assessment and portrayal of these two larger-than-life Southwestern folk heroes, Ray John de Aragon attempts to set the historical record straight. Padre Martinez (1793-1867) is viewed as a genius who was ahead of his time. Recognized as a champion of the poor, defender of the Native Americans and proponent of human rights, it was inevitable that he would clash with Lamy. Bishop Lamy (1814-1888), who also had his followers, emerges as someone whose understanding of native New Mexican cultures was lacking, but one whose intentions were to do good as a missionary in a strange and foreign land.

Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

<p>Alabados, or meditational hymns, which have been passed down for generations among the Penitente Brotherhood, form a central part of Penitente worship. Hermanos de la Luz offers the first collection of these beautiful works in a Spanish/English edition. The author provides a history of Penitente worship, which Spanish settlers brought to the New World in the 17th century, and the role the Brotherhood played in the life of isolated Spanish communities of the Southwest. He discusses other expressions of faith that are closely associated with the Penitente tradition -- most notably the work of santeros -- folk artists who for centuries have created distinctive images of saints and other sacred figures for Penitente shrines in churches, homes, and moradas (Penitente chapels). De Aragon's own santos are among those reproduced in the book. With his balanced yet sympathetic portrait of the Brotherhood and the roots of their Christian beliefs and practices, de Aragon counters popular misconceptions and gives a sense of the authentic spiritual inspiration that underlies their faith.</p>

Hermanos De LA Luz: Living Tradition of the Penitente Faith (English and Spanish Edition)

Christian Books & Bibles

Catholicism

Clear Light+publishers

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Books by Ray John de Aragón