Traditional La Llorona is often depicted as a colonial woman, upper-class, crying over a lost aristocratic love. Pablo La Piedra’s version is La Llorona of the Soacha commune. She isn’t crying because a Spanish conquistador left her; she is crying because the system failed her, because poverty stole her kids, because the river is polluted. He grounds the myth in socio-economic reality.
To the uninitiated, La Llorona is just a ghost who drowned her children and now weeps by rivers. But to a Colombiana llorona, the symbol runs deeper. In Colombia, the "weeping woman" is a metaphor for La Violencia (the violence), for the mothers of the disappeared (Madres de Soacha), and for the millions of women left behind by migration or homicide.
Pablo La Piedra is not just making a horror movie; he is making a social commentary.
"El llanto" (the weeping) is a survival mechanism in Colombian culture. It is the release valve for a society that often celebrates "la berraquera" (toughness). By casting a real Colombian woman to embody the ghost, Pablo is forcing the country to look at its own reflection—the mothers crying at the bus stop, the women scrubbing laundry in the Rio Magdalena, the lovers left waiting in the rain. pablo la piedra casting colombiana llorona
Why can’t La Llorona be a man? Or a father? Pablo’s portrayal asks a radical question: If a father lost his children, would his grief be any less valid? By putting a man in the dress, the sketch highlights the absurdity of gender roles in horror. Grief has no gender, but in Colombia, it sure has an accent.
After six months of searching, through nearly 5,000 applicants, Pablo La Piedra found his Llorona. Her name is Martha Cecilia Bohórquez (52), a former fish vendor from Honda, Tolima.
Martha is not an actress. She is a displaced victim of the Colombian armed conflict who lost two sons to the river during a flash flood in 1998. She approached the casting not as a job, but as therapy. Traditional La Llorona is often depicted as a
In a leaked WhatsApp voice note (later verified by RCN Radio), La Piedra told his producer: "She is not acting. When she weeps, the river weeps with her. This is the Colombian Llorona. This is the real soul of the country."
The casting of Martha Cecilia has been lauded by folklorists and criticized by mental health advocates. Critics argue that La Piedra is exploiting generational trauma—turning the very real grief of a mother into a horror trope. The director defends his choice, stating, "Only a woman who has felt the weight of the water can carry the weight of the legend."
Naturally, the casting colombiana llorona has not been without scandal. Feminist groups have accused Pablo of exploiting female trauma for "male-gaze horror." Critics argue that turning a suffering woman into a horror icon glorifies feminicidio (femicide). "You want to cancel me
Pablo responded to the backlash in his typical blunt fashion:
"You want to cancel me? Fine. But the Llorona exists because men hurt women. I am casting the ghost to show the wound, not the weapon. The only women who are scared of this casting are the ones who have never actually cried for real."
Furthermore, traditional Mexican creators have raised eyebrows, asking why a Colombian influencer is appropriating their legend. Pablo’s defense? "The crying woman is universal. In Mexico she weeps in Spanish; in Colombia she weeps in berraquera. We are sharing the pain."