Abstract
This chapter analyzes the film La Llorona (1933) by Ramón Peón through the lens of female characters. La Llorona is the story of a wailing woman who murders her children when her husband refuses to recognize them. Several versions popularize the legend, but Peón's film specifically draws on the figure of Doña Marina, the translator and lover of Hernán Cortés, with whom she conceived the first mestizo of America. Along these lines, the representation of women throughout various generations not only reinforces patriarchal discourses of ideal femininity but also sheds light on mestizaje as an avenue to solve racial tensions. This ethnic question is problematized by the fact that the Spanish patriarch and indigenous women lose their lives. Yet Dr. Acuña, his wife and son survive, since they symbolize the mestiza nation originating in the Mexican Revolution.
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