The Piece
My illustrative interpretation has more colour in it than I initially intended, but I think it works with the line work to create a haunting visual that sticks in your head. I didn’t use anything fancy to create this piece; I sketched this directly onto Winsor & Newton marker paper with the nearest pencil I had to hand. I enjoy inking intricate, tiny details on a smooth surface and figured that I could use my Ohuhu markers to add solid, even colour should I need it. Tiny bones, leaves, vines and thorns are a staple in a lot of my illustrations, and I knew I wanted to include them in my interpretation of La Sayona, along with the skulls. I always wanted her to be directly looking at the viewer, and having an ominous background for her makes for another unsettling feature, although I probably would have added more layers of ink for the black to be as dark as possible. I also used some colouring pencils to add extra detail and shading to the roses and the leaves. The tattoos were the result of my sleepy doodling - something I like the look of but probably would include in a charcoal ink as opposed to black to add more of a contrast in the future - and any white detailing was from a Sakura Gelly Roller in 0.5. She is also holding a cigarette in her right hand by her cheek, but on reflection it looks more like a ring - I could have made that a tad clearer!
The Words
I’ve always found death beautiful.
It is the sort of thing you just can’t look away from; corpses have the most unguarded expressions. There’s no messy deception to worry about when you look at a dead person’s face. They don’t have it in them to try to deceive you. Even after the most terrifying, horrific end, they don’t have the capacity to arrange their features into anything more than a pure, blank expression. Once that final breath has been expelled, that’s that.
There was never any shortage of death where I grew up, so I always had the opportunity to look at it. Funnily enough, looking at it and actually executing it are two very different things. And after the first time…well…to be honest it took a long, long time before I could even glance at it again.
The irony is not lost on me.
The world never learns. History can’t teach the unwilling, and humans don’t want to accept that they do in fact know better. They always think a regretful repentance after the mistake will be enough to save them. You are not entitled to forgiveness. Being cursed has it’s drawbacks, but having the ability to administer my own brand of justice is nothing but a blessing in the truest form.
I like that you’re still bleeding. Fresh blood is always the prettiest. There is no shade of red like it.
I bet you wish you could go back in time, even by one measly hour.
But you can’t run from your destiny; if you didn’t meet me in that bar it would have been in another.
You’ve never been satisfied with your lot in life. No one can fault your drive; there are few with the kind of ambition you possess. But conquering goals is not the same as conquering women and, unfortunately, you’ve never been able to understand that difference. But you’re not alone. If I told you the names of every single man I’ve taught this lesson to we’d be here forever. And your soul is about ready to pass on.
Besides, your blood is beginning to congeal and that’s where the beauty ends for me.
The Legend
Some versions call her Luz Maria, in others she goes by Melissa, but the first time I encountered her, her given name was Casilda. Casilda was married and a mother to a baby boy when she began to suspect her husband of having an affair. What gives Casilda’s story an extra layer of heartbreak however, is that the woman she believed her husband was being unfaithful with was her own mother. In some versions she is told by a man who has been stalking her ever since he caught her swimming naked, implying that he thought they would end up together, and in others it is an assumption she comes to on her own. Either way, she is so consumed with anger and the sting of betrayal that she gets her revenge through horrific means. She returns home and, finding her husband asleep in their bed with their son on his chest, sets them both alight. She then murders her mother, stabbing her in the stomach. Some tales include the twist of her mother telling her that the man who told her about the affair was lying, but there is one common element in every version: her mother uses her last breath to curse Casilda to forever remain a wandering, vengeful spirit. Some stories have her cursed to kill loyal husbands, whereas others say she chose to use her immortality to hunt and torture those who are unfaithful to their partners. Either way, it’s a pretty miserable end to a horrible story, and the message it leaves you with is clear: don’t cheat on your partner…ever.
A note on sources: As you can imagine, like any legend, there are numerous versions and numerous places to find them. I scoured articles, books, visual media and podcasts and have compiled together a list below that inspired my work the most, without being too repetitive. Feel free to take a look and let me know if there are any others you think deserve a place on the list!
Short animation– Mariana Benitez M featured the ‘HBO Latinoamerica’ short animation on her channel with English subtitles, which I stumbled across in my research. This version is a little different: Luz Maria is intensely jealous of the way her husband and her mother are around each other, as is her mother’s chauffer, and one day he tells Luz Maria that her mother and husband are having an affair. Watch the video to see how she gets her revenge, but there is a twist that her mother reveals to her a little too late, and her soul is condemned to wander the earth, punishing men whose eyes stray to beautiful women who “don’t belong to them.”
HBO Latinoamerica Facebook page - where you can get a taste of the animation. Warning: if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up binge-watching all of the available episodes on Mariana’s channel straight after!
Something Wraith-Like This Way Comes - This article has some incredible photography to accompany a number of disturbing female legends, some you can find in my Mythological Creatures gallery and in various blog posts, from across the world, and La Sayona is the first one.
365 Days of Terror - this is a great place to start for anything unnerving or creepy, and their short post on the legend of La Sayona highlights two different versions of the story you might be interested in.
‘Mythical Beasts and Beings,’ Lisa Graves (2017) – This is an ideal resource if you’re looking for bite-size entries on a range of creatures from across the world, with stunning illustrations by Lisa herself that I find myself getting lost in every time I pick it up. La Sayona is mentioned on page 13 in relation to the legend of the Ciguapa, another creepy creature that lurks in mountains and lures travellers to their end.