Lost El Paso Paranormal hosted a free event called “The Legend of La Llorona” Friday, Sept. 13 at the San Carlos Building in downtown El Paso. The event featured local vendors, live music, poetry, performances, a costume contest, a traveling museum exhibit featuring folklore and paranormal themed pieces and an original ghost tour.
“What inspired us to do this event is my wife who is a published author. Back in 2004, she actually wrote a book called “Weird Texas” and one of the stories in there is about La Llorona, ‘cause she had an experience with La Llorona once when she was a little girl,” said Dean Tarango, an event organizer.
The traveling museum featured several drawings of La Llorona and written accounts of sightings. Other folklore legends were also featured, such as letters from famous serial killer “The Night Stalker,” a black mirror where spirits can be seen, and a Ouija board, among other things.
“I think it is a good idea, because when they tell us to come see La Llorona we don’t know what to expect. We all know the story, but when you come to the event you see the other side of the story and you’re like ‘Wow!’,” attendee Guadalupe Kendrick said.
There were several tents where local artisans and vendors displayed and sold items such as Lucha Libre masks, postcards that featured folklore legends, bracelets with crystals and flower crowns.
“I work with crystals, so I wanted to share with people my love of crystals,” local artisan Janet Marin said. “I’ve learned to heal myself with crystals.”
A costume contest was also hosted, where several girls and women from all ages dressed up as La Llorona and did their best impression of the wails that this legend is known for. There were other attendees dressed up in folklore costumes, such as a werewolf, since it was a full moon on that Friday the 13th. Another attendees cosplayed Pennywise from the novel and movie “IT.”
The ghost tour was very popular with the people at the event
“The tour that we did now, I did in character as La Llorona, just for a little bit of extra fun. We walked around and talked about some of the haunted hot spots here, some of the architecture of some of the buildings that have activity, and looked around some of the old original cemeteries of downtown,” event host Heather Shade said .
This is the fourth event that Lost El Paso Paranormal has hosted which they do every year around September.
