Jayro Bustamante‘s La Llorona Nominated for Best Foreign Film; Hamilton the Movie Is Also a Candidate in Two Categories.

Taylor-Joy stands out as one of two actresses with double nominations of the prestigious Golden Globes this year.

The 24-year-old actress of Argentine descent competes in the best actress in a comedy feature category for her leading role in Emma, where she faces off against Oscar-nominated and past Golden Globe winners Michelle Pfeiffer (French Exit) and Kate Hudson (Music).

Taylor-Joy is also nominated for best actress for the limited television series The Queen’s Gambit, facing off against Cate Blanchett (Mrs. America) and Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), both multiple Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning stars.

Taylor-Joy is a first-time nominee for a Golden Globe.

However, the drama about an orphaned, chess prodigy is not the only Latino-led episodic competing this year for the coveted award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 

Disney’s The Mandalorian, starring Chilean-born actor Pedro Pascal, is also nominated for best television drama series. The sci-fi western episodic from the Star Wars universe competes against The Crown, Lovecraft Country, Ozark, and Ratched.

Hamilton, the film that captured the live performance of the acclaimed Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda featuring the original cast, also received two nominations, for best musical or comedy motion picture. The feature about America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton competes against Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Music, Palm Springs, and The Prom. Miranda, who stars in the film, is also a contender for best actor, along with Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), James Corden (The Prom), Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield), and Andy Samberg (Palm Springs).

This will be Miranda’s third Golden Globes nomination. His first two nominations were for best original song for the animated series Moana and later for his acting in Mary Poppins Returns.

In the foreign language film category, the Spanish-language horror flick La Llorona from Guatemala competes against Denmark’s Another Round, Italy’s The Life Ahead, France’s Two of Us, and U.S.A.’s Korean-language dramedy Minari.

La Llorona is a supernatural drama about an aging war criminal facing death and ghosts of his past. Directed by Jayro Bustamante (Temblores), the film is also Guatemala’s official entry for the Oscars this year.

The 78th edition of the Golden Globes will take place on Feb. 28 and air on NBC. Hosting the awards will be comedic actresses Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Amy Poehler (Inside Out) repeating that feat for the fourth time. Fey will be live from New York, and Poehler will be live from Beverly Hills. Nominees will join in live from various locations around the world.

Check out the complete list of Golden Globe nominees:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Father (Trademark Films; Sony Pictures Classics)
Mank (Netflix; Netflix)
Nomadland  (Highwayman / Hear/Say / Cor Cordium; Searchlight Pictures)
Promising Young Woman (Luckychap Entertainment / Filmnation Entertainment; Focus Features)
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (Marc Platt Productions / Dreamworks Pictures; Netflix)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama
Viola Davis    Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day    The United States Vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby    Pieces Of A Woman
Frances Mcdormand    Nomadland
Carey Mulligan    Promising Young Woman

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama
Riz Ahmed    Sound Of Metal
Chadwick Boseman    Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins    The Father
Gary Oldman    Mank
Tahar Rahim    The Mauritanian

Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Four By Two Films; Amazon Studios)
Hamilton (Walt Disney Pictures / Radicalmedia / 5000 Broadway Productions / Nevis Productions / Old 320 Sycamore Pictures; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Music (Pineapple Lasagne Productions / Landay Entertainment; Vertical Entertainment / Imax)
Palm Springs (Party Over Here / Limelight Productions; Neon / Hulu)
The Prom (Netflix / Dramatic Forces / Storykey Entertainment; Netflix)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy
Maria Bakalova    Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Kate Hudson    Music
Michelle Pfeiffer    French Exit
Rosamund Pike    I Care A Lot
Anya Taylor-joy    Emma.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen    Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
James Corden    The Prom
Lin-manuel Miranda    Hamilton
Dev Patel    The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Andy Samberg    Palm Springs

Best Motion Picture – Animated
The Croods: A New Age (Dreamworks Animation; Universal Pictures)
Onward (Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Over The Moon (Netflix / Pearl Studio / Glen Keane Productions; Netflix)
Soul (Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Wolfwalkers (Cartoon Saloon / Melusine; Apple / Gkids)

Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language
Another Round (Denmark) (Zentropa Entertainments; Samuel Goldwyn Films)
La Llorona (Guatemala / France) (La Casa De Producción / Les Films Du Volcan; Shudder)
The Life Ahead (Italy) (Palomar; Netflix)
Minari (Usa) (Plan B; A24)
Two Of Us (France / Usa) (Paprika Films; Magnolia Pictures)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture
Glenn Close    Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman    The Father
Jodie Foster    The Mauritanian
Amanda Seyfried    Mank
Helena Zengel    News Of The World

Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture
Sacha Baron Cohen    The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya    Judas And The Black Messiah
Jared Leto    The Little Things
Bill Murray    On The Rocks
Leslie Odom Jr.    One Night In Miami…

Best Director – Motion Picture
Emerald Fennell    Promising Young Woman
David Fincher    Mank
Regina King    One Night In Miami…
Aaron Sorkin    The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Chloé Zhao    Nomadland

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Emerald Fennell    Promising Young Woman
Jack Fincher    Mank
Aaron Sorkin    The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton    The Father
Chloé Zhao    Nomadland

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Alexandre Desplat    The Midnight Sky
Ludwig Göransson    Tenet
James Newton Howard    News Of The World
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross    Mank
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste    Soul

Best Original Song – Motion Picture
“Fight For You” — Judas And The Black Messiah
Music By:    H.E.R., Dernst Emile Ii
Lyrics By:    H.E.R., Tiara Thomas
“Hear My Voice” — The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Music By:    Daniel Pemberton
Lyrics By:    Daniel Pemberton, Celeste Waite
“Io Sì (Seen)” — The Life Ahead
Music By:    Diane Warren
Lyrics By:    Diane Warren, Laura Pausini, Niccolò Agliardi
“Speak Now” — One Night In Miami…
Music By:    Leslie Odom Jr, Sam Ashworth
Lyrics By:    Leslie Odom Jr, Sam Ashworth
“Tigress & Tweed” — The United States Vs. Billie Holiday
Music By:    Andra Day, Raphael Saadiq
Lyrics By:    Andra Day, Raphael Saadiq

Best Television Series – Drama
The Crown – Netflix (Left Bank Pictures / Sony Pictures Television)
Lovecraft Country – Hbo (Hbo / Afemme / Monkeypaw / Bad Robot / Warner Bros. Television)
The Mandalorian – Disney+ (Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Ozark – Netflix (Mrc Television)
Ratched – Netflix (Fox21 Television Studios)   

Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Olivia Colman    The Crown
Jodie Comer    Killing Eve
Emma Corrin    The Crown
Laura Linney    Ozark
Sarah Paulson    Ratched

Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Drama
Jason Bateman    Ozark
Josh O’connor    The Crown
Bob Odenkirk    Better Call Saul
Al Pacino    Hunters
Matthew Rhys    Perry Mason

Best Television Series – Musical Or Comedy
Emily In Paris – Netflix (Darren Star Productions / Jax Media / Mtv Studios)
The Flight Attendant – Hbo Max (Hbo Max / Berlanti Productions / Yes, Norman Productions / Warner Bros. Television)
The Great – Hulu (Hulu / Civic Center Media / Mrc)
Schitt’s Creek – Pop Tv (Not A Real Company Productions / Canadian Broadcast Company / Pop Tv)
Ted Lasso – Apple Tv+ (Apple / Doozer Productions / Warner Bros. Television / Universal Television)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Musical Or Comedy
Lily Collins    Emily In Paris
Kaley Cuoco    The Flight Attendant
Elle Fanning    The Great
Jane Levy    Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Catherine O’hara    Schitt’s Creek

Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Musical Or Comedy
Don Cheadle    Black Monday
Nicholas Hoult    The Great
Eugene Levy    Schitt’s Creek
Jason Sudeikis    Ted Lasso
Ramy Youssef    Ramy

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series Or Motion Picture Made For Television
Normal People – Hulu (Hulu / Bbc / Element Pictures)
The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix (Netflix)
Small Axe – Amazon Studios (Bbc Studios Americas, Inc / Amazon Studios)
The Undoing – Hbo (Hbo / Made Up Stories / Blossom Films/David E. Kelley Productions)
Unorthodox – Netflix (Studio Airlift / Realfilm)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Limited Series, Anthology Series Or A Motion Picture Made For Television
Cate Blanchett    Mrs. America
Daisy Edgar-jones    Normal People
Shira Haas    Unorthodox
Nicole Kidman    The Undoing
Anya Taylor-joy    The Queen’s Gambit

Best Performance By An Actor In A Limited Series, Anthology Series Or A Motion Picture Made For Television
Bryan Cranston    Your Honor
Jeff Daniels    The Comey Rule
Hugh Grant    The Undoing
Ethan Hawke    The Good Lord Bird
Mark Ruffalo    I Know This Much Is True

Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Supporting Role
Gillian Anderson    The Crown
Helena Bonham Carter    The Crown
Julia Garner    Ozark
Annie Murphy    Schitt’s Creek
Cynthia Nixon    Ratched

Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Supporting Role
John Boyega    Small Axe
Brendan Gleeson    The Comey Rule
Daniel Levy    Schitt’s Creek
Jim Parsons    Hollywood
Donald Sutherland    The Undoing

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By Robert Lopez

Of all the Latin American folktales and legends, none are more prolific and well-known as that of La Llorona. Long before its latest movie incarnation, The Curse of La Llorona was released the haunting tale had reverberated throughout the Latino cultures for generations, along with chilling stories of eyewitness accounts. And while variations of La Llorona or “the weeping woman” can be found in cultures around the world, there is no question that the origins of the Latin American version, lies in the Mexican culture. 

Three of the most popular Mexican versions of La Llorona are:

1. A woman of indigenous origin is so grief-stricken and enraged by her husband’s infidelity, she commits murder/suicide; vengefully killing their offspring by drowning them, and is immediately so grief-stricken, commits suicide alongside her children in the water. 
   
2. The grieving woman is the spirit of one or more Aztec Goddesses, like Chihuacoatl, who first appeared weeping perhaps as one of the omens foretelling the arrival of the Spaniards and their subsequent slaughter and continues to weep to this day.
   
3. The grieving woman is actually Doña Marina, better known as La Malinche, Hernan Cortés’ lover and interpreter, considered a traitor to the Mexica (and the origin of the Spanish term malinchismo). Speculation suggests that she drowned her children born from Cortes in revenge for his betrayal with a Spanish woman.

Unlike many other legends and myths, La Llorona comes with actual encounters and eyewitness accounts throughout history, right-up to present-day, giving this story a more tangible form then mere folktale.

In seeking the ultimate expert on La Llorona, academic authorities pointed me to the gentleman who has conducted the only in-depth research project on her, that being, preeminent supernatural/paranormal investigator/researcher Christopher Chacon. Chacon’s research and investigatory background spans nearly forty years and thousands of cases, dealing with the most extraordinary supernatural and paranormal incidents from around the world; from possessions to poltergeists, from alien abductions to creature attacks. In addition to being a world-renowned Parapsychologist and Anomalist, Chacon is one of the world’s top authorities on all supernatural and paranormal phenomena, as well as supernatural occult practices, from arcane ancient sorcery and magick to present-day witchcraft in every corner of the world, including all brujeria practices and supernatural traditions throughout Mesoamerica. 

This would not by any means be the first supernatural legend that Chacon has chased-down to research and investigate, having conducted countless expeditions exploring some of the most well-known legendary beings, places and phenomena in supernatural mythology, so he would be more than familiar with navigating through the morass of baseless stories, hoaxes and unverifiable accounts.

Chacon’s research/investigation into La Llorona entailed two primary phases: 

• Investigation/Analysis of Actual Experiences and their Locations/Circumstances
• Wide-Array Historical Research (Historiography Assessment, Anthropological, etc.)

Chacon’s investigation of actual experiences required him to confidentially track-down and sort through thousands of alleged encounters of La Llorona and select only the most credible that also met the criteria for further scientific assessment.

Over 2,500 subjects (eyewitnesses) were selected, from children to the elderly. Once a mutual agreement of confidentially was established, each eyewitness was thoroughly interviewed and then underwent a battery of physiological and psychological tests. Additionally, the location where each experience took place was also analyzed, assessing the environmental conditions and circumstances surrounding each experience.

Chacon determined that some 1,750 of the experiences were explainable and not in anyway paranormal, including those experiences that reportedly involved a terrifying La Llorona, turning out to be nothing of the sort. However, another 750 or so of the experiences were in-fact the result of real phenomena, though 643 of those were determined by Chacon to be an entirely different phenomenon altogether and were being misinterpreted as La Llorona. In the last remaining 107 experiences, Chacon noted some truly curious findings, “While the 107 experiences were consistent with the visual/sensory experience of La Llorona, there were no indications of any malevolence, animosity or malice toward the children at the center of each encounter, but rather only benevolence, warmth, compassion and even at times protective, nurturing characteristics.” This is obviously baffling as these findings are in complete contrast to what has been passed down about the legend/folktale through the ages. To reiterate, the vicious, terrifyingly evil La Llorona that supposedly hunts children, appears to be a fallacy.   

Chacon’s wide-array research into the origin of La Llorona first focused on the traditional narrative we are most familiar with, analyzing all existing historical data and information, additionally assessing the veracity, integrity, and credibility of any sources/origins. Chacon emphasized the importance of understanding how legends, folktales, and myths are created and perpetuated in order to put these long-established stories and interpretations into perspective. As with his investigations of eyewitness accounts, Chacon conducted the research of the La Llorona legend with an unbiased, objective approach, taking all possibilities into account before reaching any type of conclusion. He conducted a piece of wide-sweeping information collected from a variety of conventional and unconventional sources (scouring trading company, religious, colonial, business, mining, manufacturing, military/army, artistic/museum, archives, and records, as well as a variety of oral histories from brujeria/curandera practicing families, etc.). Others have attempted to explain the origin of La Llorona by speculating that she is the product of beliefs stemming from ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures, like the Aztec goddesses Ciuaciatl and Chalchiuhtlicue, however when Chacon took into consideration numerous past cases/research involving these beings/entities and the findings of his La Llorona research he found no connection, suggesting that historical/cultural conflation is responsible for the fallacy. The information Chacon discovered from multiple sources supports an alternative version of the La Llorona narrative:

            “In a malicious act of spite and vengeance, an abusive unscrupulous father, NOT the mother, drowns their children. When the mother realizes this, she first attempts to save the drowned children, then in a grief-stricken state commits suicide alongside them. Conspiring to conceal the event and use it to his benefit, the father fabricated the narrative that the mother committed the horrific multiple-murder/suicide.” 

“This newly discovered narrative more closely coincides with the eyewitness experiences documented” Chacon confirms. “It makes clearer sense in contrast to the previous more-popular narrative that had no reliable sources. The distorted erroneous story fabricated by the father was embraced without question in that era and quickly propagated throughout Mexico over generations assisted by marianismo and machismo conveys Chacon. Primarily rooted in the Catholicism brought over by the Spanish conquest, marianismo is an aspect of the female gender role that inherently expected all females to take-on wholesome, chaste, even virginal characteristics in all aspects of life and can be cause for ostracization and persecution if not complied. “Machismo,” also introduced via the Spanish conquest, often dictates men’s superiority and control over women in every aspect of life, perpetuating a male-dominant culture.

Intriguing as it is to discover these realizations about a legend as enduring as La Llorona, if one does the research, you might be surprised to find out there are countless other folktales and legends, far more substantial, that are misinterpreted and misunderstood, yet continue to thrive. The idea that Christopher Columbus’ voyage was to prove the world wasn’t flat or that he was the one to discover the Americas; that George Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree; that the Salem witch trials burned people at the stake; or even that Jesus Christ was born on December 25^th; all inaccurate in one way or another. Jesus Christ, for example is estimated by scholars and theologians to be born sometime between the spring and fall. Chacon adds to this, the innumerous misconceptions that surround supernatural and paranormal phenomena, “Occurring on a global scale, the misinterpretation and misidentification of phenomena is the most prevalent inaccuracy, next to the misconceptions of the mechanics and workings of phenomena itself. In every culture around the world, there are phenomena believed to be something when in-fact it is not, or reacts and behaves a specific way when it does not. Many of these misconceptions and fallacies are deeply rooted in beliefs, some over many generations, and are extremely difficult to modify or inform otherwise.” 

It goes without saying that these thought-provoking and incredible new perspectives on La Llorona redefine her legend in a monumental way. And now that we now know the truth about La Llorona, I’m not sure what I am more taken aback by; the discovery of her real story and intentions, or the shocking fact that this folktale my grandmother use to tell me as a child to get me to go to bed is actually a real phenomenon.

About the Author

Robert Lopez is a former teacher, novice art curator, and amateur cultural anthropologist, chasing down very select stories as a writer/journalist thanks his very understanding family.

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