A cyclist rides along The Loop at Grant Road next to the Santa Cruz River swollen with runoff from midtown Tucson storm on July 26, 2022.
This story is one of the “universal” Mexican ghost stories, hundreds of years old, with many variations. Translated as “the crying woman,” she is seen traditionally in Tucson anywhere from the South Stone Avenue underpass to the Santa Cruz River. One version has it that she was condemned to search for her children, whom she had drowned to spite an unfaithful husband. Another says she was promiscuous and had many children, whom she drowned. When she died, she was told she couldn’t enter heaven until she found them all and brought them with her. Yet another version holds that she emigrated from Nogales, Sonora, leaving her children behind. Soon after, the Santa Cruz River flooded, the children drowned and their bodies washed up the river to Tucson. Legend has it that anyone trying to touch La Llorona will suffer a burn.
— Tucson Citizen
