Cabeza De Vaca Research Paper
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Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, an early explorer and first historian of Texas, was born in 1490 in Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia, Spain a province in the south of Spain near Cadiz.
In early 1527, Cabeza de Vaca departed Spain as a part of a royal expedition to occupy the mainland of North America. As treasurer, he was one of the chief officers on the Narváez expedition. The Narváez expedition is an expedition based on a famous conquistador Narváez was also included on the expedition. Within several months of their landing near Tampa Bay, Florida on April 15, 1528 the expedition included a party of 600 men.
As the navigators were unsure of their location, Cabeza de Vaca thought it prudent to keep the land and sea forces together. …show more content…
Narváez and the other officers, excited by rumors of gold, overruled him and started off on a march through Florida, promptly getting lost. After several months of fighting native inhabitants through wilderness and swamps, the party reached Apalachee Bay with 242 men. They believed they were near other Spaniards in Mexico, but there were in fact 1500 miles of coast between them. The men were starving, wounded, sick, and lost in swampy terrain, but came up with a plan for escape.
Slaughtering and eating their horses, they melted down stirrups, spurs, horseshoes and other metal items, and fashioned a bellows from deerhide to make a fire hot enough to forge tools and nails. They constructed five primitive boats to use in search of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca commanded one of these vessels, each of which had room for only 50 men. Depleted of food and water, they followed the coast westward, until they reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. The current swept them into the Gulf and the five rafts were separated by a hurricane, some lost forever, including that of Narváez.
Two craft with about 40 survivors, including Cabeza de Vaca, wrecked on or near Galveston Island. The explorers called it Malhado ("Misfortune"), or the Island of Doom. They had made an attempt to repair the rafts, using what remained of their own clothes as oakum to plug holes, but they lost the rafts to a large wave. As the number of survivors dwindled rapidly, they were enslaved for a few years by various American Indian tribes of the upper Gulf Coast. These included the Hans and the Capoques, and tribes later called the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans. Only four men, Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Esteban (later called Estevanico), survived and escaped to reach Mexico City.
Traveling mostly in this small group, Cabeza de Vaca explored what is now the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the northeastern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, and possibly smaller portions of New Mexico and Arizona. He traveled on foot along the then-Spanish territories of Texas and the coast. He continued through Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya; then down the Gulf of California coast to what is now Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly eight years. He lived in conditions of abject poverty and, occasionally, in slavery.
During his wanderings, passing from tribe to tribe, Cabeza de Vaca developed sympathies for the indigenous population.
He became a trader, which allowed him freedom to travel among the tribes. Cabeza de Vaca comprehended his survival and journey in religious terms, in that he claimed to have been guided by God to learn to heal the sick. He gained such notoriety as a faith healer that he and his companions gathered a large following of natives who regarded them as "children of the sun", endowed with the power to both heal and destroy. Many natives accompanied the men across what is now the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.
After finally reaching the colonized lands of New Spain where he encountered fellow Spaniards near modern-day Culiacán, Cabeza de Vaca went on to Mexico City. From there he sailed back to Europe in 1537.
Numerous researchers have struggled to trace the exact route travelled by Cabeza de Vaca. As he did not begin writing his chronicle until back in Spain, he had to rely on memory. Cabeza de Vaca was uncertain of the route he traversed. Historians realize that his account has numerous errors in chronology and geography, but many have tried to put together pieces of the puzzle to discern his paths.
Returning to
America
In 1540, Cabeza de Vaca was appointed adelantado of the Río de la Plata in South America. His mission was to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires in present-day Argentina.
En route, he disembarked from his fleet at Santa Catarina Island in modern Brazil. With an indigenous force, 250 musketeers and 26 horses, he followed native trails[7] discovered by Aleixo Garcia overland to the district's Spanish capital, Asunción, far inland on the great Paraguay River. Cabeza de Vaca is thought to have been the first European to see the Iguaçu Falls. The honor probably belongs to his scouts.
Cabeza de Vaca had an unusually benevolent attitude for his time toward the American Indians. The elite settlers, known as encomenderos, generally did not share this attitude and simply wanted to use the natives for labor. His loss of the elite support, together with the failure of Buenos Aires as a settlement, prompted the former governor Domingo Martinez de Irala to arrest Cabeza de Vaca for poor administration in 1544 and return him to Spain for trial in 1545.
Although eventually exonerated, Cabeza de Vaca never returned to the colony. He wrote an extensive report on South America, which was highly critical of Martinez de Irala. The report was bound with his earlier La Relación, The relation in English and published under the title Comentarios (Commentary). He died poor in Seville around the year 1558.
The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca is Cabeza de Vaca’s account of his experiences on what is now known as Galveston Island, Texas. In November of 1528, Cabeza de Vaca and his depleted crew of three men were shipwrecked on Galveston Island and subsequently struggled to survive. They wandered along the Texas coast as prisoners of the Han and Capoque American Indians for two years, while Cabeza de Vaca observed the people, picking up their ways of life and customs. In 1537, Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain and wrote down his narratives of the expedition. These narratives were collected and published in 1542 in Spain. Collectively, they are now known as “The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca”. The narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is the “first European book devoted completely to North America”. His account is a detailed look into the lives of American Indians of the time. Cabeza de Vaca showed compassion and respect for native peoples, which, together with the greater detail he recorded, distinguishes his narrative from others. Role of watcher
In the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca serves as a reporter of the customs and ways of American Indian life. As one of the first explorers stranded on the so-called Island of Doom, Cabeza de Vaca takes it upon himself to watch the people and make observations on their lifestyles. He spent eight years with various groups, including the Capoque, Han, Avavares, and Arbadaos. He reveals details of the culture of the Malhado people and the Capoque and Han American Indians, such as their treatment of offspring, their wedding rites, and their main sources of food. Cabeza de Vaca and the three explorers who accompanied him are said to have served as slaves to the American Indians so as to be cared for by these American Indians. His enslavement better enabled him to observe as he did not have to concern himself with matters of survival. Cabeza de Vaca serves as a guide to early American Indian life near the Mexico-Texas border.
Persona (Person)
Cabeza de Vaca wrote this narrative to Charles V to literally “transmit what I saw and heard in the nine years I wandered lost and miserable over many remote lands”.[9] He says he wants to convey “not merely a report of positions and distances, flora and fauna, but of the customs of the numerous indigenous people I talked with and dwelt among, as well as any other matters I could hear of or observe”.[9] He attempts to be factual in the manner of an accountant, which was his job in this expedition. “The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca”.
Alvar Nuñez time line
1490: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was born at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucía, Spain
His parents were Francisco de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was well educated as befitted his status and was taught several languages, physics, geometry, mathematics, cartography and astronomy
1527: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca heard the stories about the New World and joined the expedition to the New World led by Pamlico de Narvaez
June 17, 1527: Pamlico de Narvaez leaves Spain from Cadiz with 300 men, including Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca who is appointed crown treasurer of the expedition, an important position in the fleet
1528 April 12,1528: Pamlico de Narvaez and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca arrive in Florida in the vicinity of Tampa Bay. The men disembark and the land is claimed for Spain
May 1, 1528: Narvaez announces his plans for the expedition to split between land and sea expeditions
Various disasters befall the expedition which eventually result in the party which includes Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is whittled down from 80 men to 15 men and finally, to an expedition of just four men who are captured by natives
January 1536: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevanico, Alonso del Castillo and Andres Dorantes meet Spanish soldiers of New Spain in what is now the State of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico
February 1536: The four explorers arrive at Culiacan, a frontier outpost of New Spain
July 1536: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevanico, Alonso Del Castillo and Andres Dorantes were welcomed to Mexico City by Hernan Cortes and Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain
April 1537: Cabeza de Vaca leaves for Spain but Estevanico, Alonso del Castillo and Andres Dorantes stay in the New World
1537: Cabeza de Vaca reports on his eight year expedition across Texas. He also speaks of the inhumane treatment of the natives by the Spanish Conquistadors and the abuse of the Encomienda system. This coincides with new laws concerning the treatment of natives
1537: Cabeza de Vaca is granted the post of Governor of the La Plata regions (Argentina)
1537: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca spends three years writing an account of his eight year expedition across Texas providing descriptions of his experiences, the land and the natives. It is called La relacion (The relation)
1541: Cabeza de Vaca takes up his position as Governor of the La Plata regions (Argentina)
1542: La relacion(The relation) is published
1543: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca introduces new edicts about the fair treatment of natives and the suppression of slavery which correspond to the new laws in Spain
1543: The edicts of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca result in a reduction in revenue and his men rebel against him
April 1543 to March 1544: Cabeza de Vaca is held prisoner
1544: Cabeza de Vaca is returned to Spain
Cabeza de Vaca goes to Madrid to have his case tried before the Council of the Indies
1546: Cabeza de Vaca was sentenced to the loss of all of his offices in the La Plata Province and was exiled to North Africa
1551: His exile to North Africa was rescinded and he takes up residence in Seville
1559: Cabeza de Vaca dies in Valladolid, Spain
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, an early explorer and first historian of Texas, was born in 1490 in Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia, Spain a province in the south of Spain near Cadiz.
In early 1527, Cabeza de Vaca departed Spain as a part of a royal expedition to occupy the mainland of North America. As treasurer, he was one of the chief officers on the Narváez expedition. The Narváez expedition is an expedition based on a famous conquistador Narváez was also included on the expedition. Within several months of their landing near Tampa Bay, Florida on April 15, 1528 the expedition included a party of 600 men.
As the navigators were unsure of their location, Cabeza de Vaca thought it prudent to keep the land and sea forces together. …show more content…
Narváez and the other officers, excited by rumors of gold, overruled him and started off on a march through Florida, promptly getting lost. After several months of fighting native inhabitants through wilderness and swamps, the party reached Apalachee Bay with 242 men. They believed they were near other Spaniards in Mexico, but there were in fact 1500 miles of coast between them. The men were starving, wounded, sick, and lost in swampy terrain, but came up with a plan for escape.
Slaughtering and eating their horses, they melted down stirrups, spurs, horseshoes and other metal items, and fashioned a bellows from deerhide to make a fire hot enough to forge tools and nails. They constructed five primitive boats to use in search of Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca commanded one of these vessels, each of which had room for only 50 men. Depleted of food and water, they followed the coast westward, until they reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. The current swept them into the Gulf and the five rafts were separated by a hurricane, some lost forever, including that of Narváez.
Two craft with about 40 survivors, including Cabeza de Vaca, wrecked on or near Galveston Island. The explorers called it Malhado ("Misfortune"), or the Island of Doom. They had made an attempt to repair the rafts, using what remained of their own clothes as oakum to plug holes, but they lost the rafts to a large wave. As the number of survivors dwindled rapidly, they were enslaved for a few years by various American Indian tribes of the upper Gulf Coast. These included the Hans and the Capoques, and tribes later called the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans. Only four men, Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Esteban (later called Estevanico), survived and escaped to reach Mexico City.
Traveling mostly in this small group, Cabeza de Vaca explored what is now the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the northeastern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, and possibly smaller portions of New Mexico and Arizona. He traveled on foot along the then-Spanish territories of Texas and the coast. He continued through Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya; then down the Gulf of California coast to what is now Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly eight years. He lived in conditions of abject poverty and, occasionally, in slavery.
During his wanderings, passing from tribe to tribe, Cabeza de Vaca developed sympathies for the indigenous population.
He became a trader, which allowed him freedom to travel among the tribes. Cabeza de Vaca comprehended his survival and journey in religious terms, in that he claimed to have been guided by God to learn to heal the sick. He gained such notoriety as a faith healer that he and his companions gathered a large following of natives who regarded them as "children of the sun", endowed with the power to both heal and destroy. Many natives accompanied the men across what is now the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.
After finally reaching the colonized lands of New Spain where he encountered fellow Spaniards near modern-day Culiacán, Cabeza de Vaca went on to Mexico City. From there he sailed back to Europe in 1537.
Numerous researchers have struggled to trace the exact route travelled by Cabeza de Vaca. As he did not begin writing his chronicle until back in Spain, he had to rely on memory. Cabeza de Vaca was uncertain of the route he traversed. Historians realize that his account has numerous errors in chronology and geography, but many have tried to put together pieces of the puzzle to discern his paths.
Returning to
America
In 1540, Cabeza de Vaca was appointed adelantado of the Río de la Plata in South America. His mission was to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires in present-day Argentina.
En route, he disembarked from his fleet at Santa Catarina Island in modern Brazil. With an indigenous force, 250 musketeers and 26 horses, he followed native trails[7] discovered by Aleixo Garcia overland to the district's Spanish capital, Asunción, far inland on the great Paraguay River. Cabeza de Vaca is thought to have been the first European to see the Iguaçu Falls. The honor probably belongs to his scouts.
Cabeza de Vaca had an unusually benevolent attitude for his time toward the American Indians. The elite settlers, known as encomenderos, generally did not share this attitude and simply wanted to use the natives for labor. His loss of the elite support, together with the failure of Buenos Aires as a settlement, prompted the former governor Domingo Martinez de Irala to arrest Cabeza de Vaca for poor administration in 1544 and return him to Spain for trial in 1545.
Although eventually exonerated, Cabeza de Vaca never returned to the colony. He wrote an extensive report on South America, which was highly critical of Martinez de Irala. The report was bound with his earlier La Relación, The relation in English and published under the title Comentarios (Commentary). He died poor in Seville around the year 1558.
The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca is Cabeza de Vaca’s account of his experiences on what is now known as Galveston Island, Texas. In November of 1528, Cabeza de Vaca and his depleted crew of three men were shipwrecked on Galveston Island and subsequently struggled to survive. They wandered along the Texas coast as prisoners of the Han and Capoque American Indians for two years, while Cabeza de Vaca observed the people, picking up their ways of life and customs. In 1537, Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain and wrote down his narratives of the expedition. These narratives were collected and published in 1542 in Spain. Collectively, they are now known as “The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca”. The narrative of Cabeza de Vaca is the “first European book devoted completely to North America”. His account is a detailed look into the lives of American Indians of the time. Cabeza de Vaca showed compassion and respect for native peoples, which, together with the greater detail he recorded, distinguishes his narrative from others. Role of watcher
In the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca serves as a reporter of the customs and ways of American Indian life. As one of the first explorers stranded on the so-called Island of Doom, Cabeza de Vaca takes it upon himself to watch the people and make observations on their lifestyles. He spent eight years with various groups, including the Capoque, Han, Avavares, and Arbadaos. He reveals details of the culture of the Malhado people and the Capoque and Han American Indians, such as their treatment of offspring, their wedding rites, and their main sources of food. Cabeza de Vaca and the three explorers who accompanied him are said to have served as slaves to the American Indians so as to be cared for by these American Indians. His enslavement better enabled him to observe as he did not have to concern himself with matters of survival. Cabeza de Vaca serves as a guide to early American Indian life near the Mexico-Texas border.
Persona (Person)
Cabeza de Vaca wrote this narrative to Charles V to literally “transmit what I saw and heard in the nine years I wandered lost and miserable over many remote lands”.[9] He says he wants to convey “not merely a report of positions and distances, flora and fauna, but of the customs of the numerous indigenous people I talked with and dwelt among, as well as any other matters I could hear of or observe”.[9] He attempts to be factual in the manner of an accountant, which was his job in this expedition. “The Relation of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca”.
Alvar Nuñez time line
1490: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was born at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucía, Spain
His parents were Francisco de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was well educated as befitted his status and was taught several languages, physics, geometry, mathematics, cartography and astronomy
1527: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca heard the stories about the New World and joined the expedition to the New World led by Pamlico de Narvaez
June 17, 1527: Pamlico de Narvaez leaves Spain from Cadiz with 300 men, including Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca who is appointed crown treasurer of the expedition, an important position in the fleet
1528 April 12,1528: Pamlico de Narvaez and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca arrive in Florida in the vicinity of Tampa Bay. The men disembark and the land is claimed for Spain
May 1, 1528: Narvaez announces his plans for the expedition to split between land and sea expeditions
Various disasters befall the expedition which eventually result in the party which includes Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is whittled down from 80 men to 15 men and finally, to an expedition of just four men who are captured by natives
January 1536: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevanico, Alonso del Castillo and Andres Dorantes meet Spanish soldiers of New Spain in what is now the State of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico
February 1536: The four explorers arrive at Culiacan, a frontier outpost of New Spain
July 1536: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevanico, Alonso Del Castillo and Andres Dorantes were welcomed to Mexico City by Hernan Cortes and Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain
April 1537: Cabeza de Vaca leaves for Spain but Estevanico, Alonso del Castillo and Andres Dorantes stay in the New World
1537: Cabeza de Vaca reports on his eight year expedition across Texas. He also speaks of the inhumane treatment of the natives by the Spanish Conquistadors and the abuse of the Encomienda system. This coincides with new laws concerning the treatment of natives
1537: Cabeza de Vaca is granted the post of Governor of the La Plata regions (Argentina)
1537: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca spends three years writing an account of his eight year expedition across Texas providing descriptions of his experiences, the land and the natives. It is called La relacion (The relation)
1541: Cabeza de Vaca takes up his position as Governor of the La Plata regions (Argentina)
1542: La relacion(The relation) is published
1543: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca introduces new edicts about the fair treatment of natives and the suppression of slavery which correspond to the new laws in Spain
1543: The edicts of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca result in a reduction in revenue and his men rebel against him
April 1543 to March 1544: Cabeza de Vaca is held prisoner
1544: Cabeza de Vaca is returned to Spain
Cabeza de Vaca goes to Madrid to have his case tried before the Council of the Indies
1546: Cabeza de Vaca was sentenced to the loss of all of his offices in the La Plata Province and was exiled to North Africa
1551: His exile to North Africa was rescinded and he takes up residence in Seville
1559: Cabeza de Vaca dies in Valladolid, Spain