Cabeza De Vaca Research Paper

All the World is Human

When Cabeza de Vaca came to the "New World" he was just one of over 300 conquistadores led by Panphilo de Narvaez. They sailed to the New World and landed in Flordia. Struggling to find their way through the swamps and wetlands, their problems only increased when they were killed one-by-one by the Native American tribes (the Seminole tribes). Hoping to save their lives after running out of food, the conquistadores went back to the sea. However when they arrived they saw that their ships and commrades had assumed that they were dead and left to sail back to Spain.

The surviving conquistadores then built barges to sail down the coastline, thinking that Mexico was just one or two leagues away. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the barges captains led by Narvaez. Soon tempers flared and Narvaez and a few of the barges set sail across

the Gulf in stormy weather leaving the rest behind. One of the barges that followed Narvaez was Cabeza de Vaca's. Narvaez was never seen again, but thanks to Cabeza de Vaca we know what happened after this.
On the November 6, 1682 they landed on Galviston Island which at that time of year was inhabited by Karankawa Indians. The surviving conquistadores expected to be sacrificed and were mourning for themselves. The Karankawas took pity on the starving, misrable strangers and mourned with them and then shared their food and shelter. Their kindness made de Vaca realize that these people were not savages, but people like him and his fellow Spaniards. They showed de Vaca how and where to find food and helped him to live.
The Karankawa Indians were nomadic, meaning that they moved around/with the seasons, and when they went back to the mainland they took de Vaca. They had thought he was a man of power but when they realized he had no "real skills" (at least ones that they thought would help them in thier day-to-day lives), they enslaved him. He was treated harshly but he was still alive. He went where (at that time) no European man had gone before. A world unknown to many other than the tribes that populated it.
The first Native Americans he met (other than the Karankawas) were Yguazes, Mendicas, and Mariames.

There were many different tribes that he met between the Brazos and San Antionio rivers known today as Coahuiltecans. Life was still bad for Cabeza de Vaca but better than with the Karankawas, the people acted kinder towards him and they gave him food. So, he stayed with them and traded for them. He was trying to find a place for himself in their tribes, like we do today in our towns societies and day-to-day lives. He learned what it meant to be conqured, he got to feel what it was like when he was a conquistador and forced others to be slaves to them.

Cabeza de Vaca watched their shamans using Peyote in their healing and ceremonies (like hunting ceremonies). He also did simple procedures like cutting out arrows from men who had been in fights, cauterizing wounds, and things like that. He eventually became seen as a type of shaman/medicine man as well. But, he was still a slave, and was beaten if he was caught trying to escape or run from them. He became increasingly more desperate to see his homeland

again.
He spent 5 years living with the Coahuiltecans, migrating each year from the coas to the inland camping grounds. One summer he learned that three other conquistadores he had traveled with had survived the shipwreck, and together they made an escape plan. They had to wait two years to put their plan into action.
According to the journals that Cabeza de Vaca kept, they journeyed along what is called "The Northern Route". Along the way, something happened to de Vaca, he is no longer a Spaniard and a Christian, but neither is he an Indian. He is a different and new man. He learned that the Native Americans were human, just as he was. And many in Spain didn't want human beings but slaves.
Everywhere along their journey route they were treated as actual people, not as property or slaves, but people who had healing abilities. Many people of his time accused him of claiming to have supernatural abilities. He told them that was not what he was saying at all but saying he did what the Indians did but with the sign of the cross and praying to God. Cabeza de Vaca was the first man to try to cross the boundaries between Christianity and Native American religions and, in a way, combine them/ use them both.
The closer they got to "his world" the more he knew that he must leave the world of the Indians, but he knew that what he was leaving had worth. He still belived the they needed to civilize the New World but he was no longer a conquistador.
When they got close to their destination they saw men coming towards them. And in that