La Llorona is the legend of a woman who lost her children: 
                        
                        La Llorona can be heard, and sometimes seen, weeping 
                        in the night. La Llorona (Spanish for "She who weeps") 
                        is in most stories said to be Mexican, but sometimes 
                        she is a woman who lived in the American Southwest. 
                        As with most urban legends, there are many variations 
                        of La Llorona, but the central plot remains intact:
              
                        The woman has lost her children, usually because she 
                        herself has killed them because she wants to marry a 
                        man who doesn't want any children. She is so anguished 
                        over the depressing circumstances that she also kills
                        herself as well, and is thus doomed forever to roam her 
                        native land, weeping and wringing her hands. Sometimes 
                        she is said to be searching for her children, and other
                        times she is said to appear only as a warning to those 
                        who see her.

                        "Sightings abound throughout the Southwest. Supposedly 
                        she drowned her children in the acequia (irrigation 
                        ditch,) and now she roams the ditches looking for her, 
                        or any, children. Usually the story is told with the 
                        intentions of keeping children away from the ditches, 
                        so they won't drown."