Trauma in Corrigedora

Corregidora, by Gayl Jones, is about a woman named Ursa who can no longer have children. She struggles with her identity and purpose in life now that the possibility of motherhood is gone. The women in her family that raised her taught her that she needs to make generations as if it is the only true power they have. Ursa finds that she can make generations through her singing and the Blues.

The novel is centered around trauma and how it is passed down from generations to generation. In an article entitled The Role of the Blues in Gayl Jones's Corregidora, the writer, Donia Elizabeth Allen, stresses the importance of stops and breaks in the novels. I want to focus on the importance of the following from the novel: “When you came and heard my music you requested songs, and then when you had me alone, you requested more than my songs. I can still feel your fucking inside me. If it wasn’t for your fucking I.” (Corregidora 46). Allen states that the fact that Ursa is unable to go on shows “the extent to which the accident has traumatized” (Allen 13) her.

In articles and conversations, there is a lot of stress put on the fact that Ursa cannot have children anymore. To many, that seems to be the ultimate source of her own personal trauma outside of the Corregidora trauma passed down from generation to generation. However, I find that it is often forgotten or glanced over that Ursa was pregnant when Mutt threw her done a flight of stairs. She did not just lose her ability to have children, she lost a life inside of her. I think the death of her would-be child also symbolizes the death of her original identity and purpose. It is why she is so lost.

The novel is centered around trauma so heavily that it is important to think about what trauma gets overlooked and what the characters do not talk about and why. Ursa never talks about how she was pregnant and lost a child with anyone. Her trauma is so heavy and painful that she cannot even speak about it.