Cabeza De Vaca Rhetorical Analysis

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer who set sail for the new world in 1527. During his trip unfortunately, he lost most of his fleet and was among a handful of survivors. He arrived in North America the following year in 1528 and made a journey that started in present day Texas, following to New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico for nearly 8 years. During this time period he wrote many documents including “Indians of the Rio Grande”, where he describes the Native American culture, among other findings for his personal diary.

Cabeza de Vaca describes a fruit called “tunas” and their significance among the Native Americans. This fruit as he mentions grows on cactus or “nopales” which only grow in a dry desert climate and are highly popular among present day Mexican culture. He also mentions large herds of cattle, this sign indicates that there was prior contact with Europeans in that region. Cabeza de Vaca finds it important to record not only the foods and behavior of Native Americans, but also the treatment they received. He mentions that they are seen as medicine men, although he confesses to himself that he has

never treated anyone for diseases. This reassures the audience that this document’s sole purpose was to serve as a diary for himself and not as a record for a hierarchy, making his experience highly credible.
“Indians of the Rio Grande” was a personal experience Cabeza de Vaca wrote from the time he became a prisoner of Natives, to the moment he found a European colony.

Although a prisoner of the Indians, he never shared a negative point of view towards them; because overall they helped each other. Towards the end of the document, he describes going on a distinct mission with a handful of Natives in search of Christians. He goes as far to describe that he was almost seen as a Native by a few Christians they came across, due to his attire and company. A leader such as himself admits to coexisting with Natives Americans, who serve a different religion and are considered savages (according to back then). This confession once again makes his personal experience/document highly reliable because there are no filters what’s so ever regarding his

journey.
The main idea of this source was to show the perseverance of Cabeza de Vaca. Although he was treated fairly and highly among the Natives, he could had easily chosen to convert to their culture. Instead he went on to search for signs of European colonization in hopes to find his people for nearly a decade. This source is also important because it serves as a record and description to early civilization within the country. It describes the movement among a tribe of Natives and their culture as well as a record of the land. It is also important because towards the end of the document, it gives historians, researchers and scholars an insight on how Cabeza de Vaca came to meet Diego de Alcaraz.