SOURCE: “The Function of the La Llorona Motif in Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima,” in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. V, No. 10, Spring–Summer, 1977, pp. 64–69.

In the following essay, Rogers examines the archetypal themes of passage, longing, and deadly seduction in Bless Me, Ultima, drawing attention to the symbolism and imagery of the “la llorona” myth.

In The Odyssey, Circe warns the homeward-bound Odysseus of the menace of the Sirens, who, surrounded by the mouldering skeletons of men, lure and bewitch the unaware man with the music of their song. Yet just beyond their lovely voices—that Odysseus escapes by having himself lashed to the mast of his ship—lurks peril, a choice between annihilation on the sheer cliffs of the Wandering Rocks or a meeting with the double menace of Scylla and Charybdis, the former hideously fishing for a passersby with her twelve dangling feet, the latter...