diaphanous

di·aph·a·nous
1.Of such fine texture as to be transparent or translucent: diaphanous tulle.
2.Characterized by delicacy of form.
3. Vague or insubstantial: diaphanous dreams of glory.


Diaphanous, for some reason, reminded me of the word "phantom", which seems actually kind of in tune to this word of the day. "Phantom", in turn, lead me to think about "La Llorona," or "the weeping woman." She is a popular legend in Spanish speaking cultures, and her story varies from country to country. The basic version is that she was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved, and was subsequently rejected by him. He might have been the children's father, and left her mother for another woman, or he might have been a man she loved, but who was uninterested in a relationship with a woman with children, and whom she thought she could win if the children were out of the way. She drowned the children then killed herself, and is doomed to wander, searching for her children, always weeping. In some cases, according to the tale, she will kidnap wandering children.

La Llorona has also appeared in modern American media. Convicted murderer Susan Smith, for example, who drowned her two sons after being rejected by a male she was interested in, appeared in a cartoon in Time magazine that compared her to La Llorona.

Her legend also exists here in the United States, as per this milk commercial released in parts of California in 2004: