“Women Who Wail”: An auto-ethnographic study of four Latina educators and the heroínas who shaped their understanding of critical pedagogies

Abstract

The lore of La Llorona, the woman who wails, is a pervasive archetype in Latin American cultures. While stories vary by country and region, the most common telling is associated with Mexican folklore, in which an anguished woman cries for her drowned children—in some retellings, their death results from her murderous rage at being betrayed by her lover; in others their deaths result from an accident. These stories have traditionally served as cautionary tales, often positioning Latinas as tragic forces within their communities (Morales, 2010); however, Chicana scholars have reconceptualized La Llorona to symbolize a feminist power. This autoethnographic study reflects on the lore of La Llorona as a metaphor for a Latina’s “resistance in society” (Anzaldúa, 1987, p.33) or as Morales (2010, p.3) states, “the voice who cries out against injustice”. Specifically, through the application of Chicana/Latina feminist and critical epistemologies, the authors explore the works of Gloria Anzaldúa, Nela Martinez Espinosa, Dolores Huerta, and Nisia Floresta— Latina feminist authors and politicians, who have used their voices to fight injustices within their communities. Furthermore, the authors reflect upon how these heroines have influenced their own identities as “women who wail”—as feminist Latina educators who work toward a pedagogy for social justice.