Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to cross the North American continent. This book is his odyssey, first written in 1542 as an official report to the king of Spain under the title La Relación. This book was published by Hispaniola Books on October 23rd, 2016. Cabeza de Vaca and the men landed in Florida on April 14th 1528. Upon their arrival, Governor Pámfilo de Narváez who was in charge of the expedition raised flags on Florida's coast and claimed the country in the Majesty's name. This is where Cabeza de Vaca's story begins. He was very vivid with the description of the men who experienced and witnessed the trip of the Interior of America. It almost felt like you were tagging along with them. Was it fate that brought them …show more content…
here or was it just just the luck of the draw? The trip started with Cabeza de Vaca and 600 men, including five Franciscan friars, in five ships. The crew left the port San Lucar de Barrameda, in the south of Spain in June 17th,1527. Under the command was Governor Pamfilo de Narvaez. Their mission was to survey and claim the land from the Florida Peninsula to the River of Palms for Spain. It took them a few months to reach their first destination but on September 17th, 1527, they reached Santo Domingo in the Caribbean. De Vaca indicates the Spanish expedition remained at Santo Domingo 45 days, during which 140 men deserted (approximately 460 remained). Governor Narvaez bought a ship at Santo Domingo (making six). It feels as if that wherever Governor Narvaez went, he was constantly trying to improve his crew and looking to purchase goods and boats. The expedition sailed to Santiago, Cuba where they collected horses and weapons. Four ships remained at Cabo de Santa Cruz, Cuba. Two ships went to get provisions at the port of Trinidad, Cuba with De Vaca aboard one of them. The trip was not going as planned. The weather completely threw them off track. The crew lost over 140 near the very beginning of your journey but Cabeza de Vaca is still alive. Unfortunately their luck wasn’t about to get any better. Shortly after they leave they are hit by a strong hurricane, killing 60 men. In the next few months, they lost about 218 more men to the wilderness and natives as they traveled across the New World (making the total men lost at this point 418 out of 600). They were forced to kill their horses for food, and eventually they constructed boats in an attempt to find Mexico, and other Spaniards. They made five boats each with enough room for about 50 men. Yet a different storm hits them once again, and this one lasts for six days, and several boats are lost after the storm. The crew is so desperate for water that some of them even resort to drinking salt water. This resulted in several more deaths. At this point only about 40 men of the initial 600 are alive. They shipwreck on an island they call Malhado, or known as “The Island of Doom”.
Over the next few months time only goes slower and things get tougher. More survivors die off, and others are put into slavery, including Cabeza de Vaca. He is enslaved for several years and is now one of only four survivors. Eventually he becomes a merchant for the natives, and while doing so, De Vaca was granted freedom. He also becomes a healer of faith, and actually gathers a large following consisting of both Natives and Spanish. Considering the time, it may also have been more or less expected that many men would die. I’m sure the men knew there wasn’t a 100%, or even 80% survival rate for these kinds of expeditions. In life, everyone is put in situations where they really have no choice but to just roll with the flow and accept what is going on. De Vaca did not really have a choice on deciding on going. He was captured and used as a guide to governor Pámfilo de …show more content…
Narváez. De Vaca often looked to god for words of wisdom. A man who goes through something as scary and mentally draining as he was would only have god to look to. Cabeza de Vaca changed like crazy as he continued on his journey. When he starts off he’s very much focused on doing this for God and king, but he slowly becomes less concerned with that. He slowly opens up to life. De Vaca develops a more accepting and worldly mind. When he first meets the Native Americans, he is terrified that they’re going to sacrifice him.
That’s the stereotype of the natives, but they are in fact very kind and offer him and his men fish and roots to eat. He develops a lot of empathy for the natives and their plight at the hands of the Spanish, because of the many years he spent in slavery. Towards the end of his journey Cabeza de Vaca could possibly relate to the Native Americans more and better than his own people. There is no way he views them as savages at this point. By now he views them as a distinctive and unique culture. The way of Native American life was much more different than the rest of peoples lives. They always got the short hand in life but they did not have much of a choice other than to just live life. Thankfully Cabeza de Vaca came to realize that the Native Americans were real people with real feelings just as much as the Spanish were. Cabeza de Vaca must have felt some guilt for how they have been mistreating the Spanish. It’s easier to feel justified for killing and enslaving a culture if you believe they are savages, and inferior to your culture. It is not okay to kill someone who is no harm to
you. As time goes on, people tend to mature as a human whether it is for the good or the bad. In this case, it was good for De Vaca. The De Vaca who left Spain was much different than the De Vaca who returned back. The De Vaca who left Spain to search for new life was very close-minded and was like the typical american today who was very biased to his own life. He believed evil was what he was getting himself into. De Vaca believed the New World was inhabited by savages, who were not fit to be treated like normal people, let alone equal. The De Vaca who left the New World had a far better understanding of the world as a whole. He realized how unfair it was to assume you were better than a different culture just because they were different. The Cabeza de Vaca who left from Spain was more caring, and more sympathetic towards others, and barely recognizable to the Cabeza de Vaca that left from America.
Christopher Columbus and Alvez Nunez Cabeza de Vaca were both explorers for Spain, but under different rulers and different times. The more famous, Christopher Columbus, came before de Vaca’s time. Columbus sailed a series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504 in search for a route to Asia which led accidentally to his discovery of new land inhabited with Indians. Christopher sailed under the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella for his journey to the “Indies,” whom he was loyal to by claiming everything in their name. De Vaca , followed in Christopher’s footsteps and journeyed to Hispanionola for Spain’s emperor, Charlves V, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Both, Columbus and de Vaca composed a series of letters addressing the main issue of their journey to the new land, but both were expressed in a different manner, included different material, and were motivated to write for dissimilar reasons.
A second reason Cabeza de Vaca survived was because of his diplomacy and goodwill skills, or the fact that he was just a good person in general. A good example of this reason would be that, shortly after being captured by the Charrucos, Cabeza de Vaca became friends with them, they which in turn allowed him to be a trader, (though still enslaved,) to tribes as far as 150 mile from the Gulf Coast region.(Doc B) A second example of this reason would be, while Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved, as well as during his trek to Mexico City, Cabeza
that Cabeza had great respect for the Indians and wanted to help them as much as he could so he would be respected back. “That we cured the sick, and that (The Spaniards) killed those who were well.”(Doc D) Cabeza was set to cure those in need but the Spaniards were already killing those who were well so his goal was very hard to set but he managed to heal a great amount of people. “And was therefore allowed to serve as a trader among Indian bands.”(Doc B) Throughout Cabeza’s journey, he learned lots of ways to stay alive such as being accepted to trade with lots of Indians and make money to find more ways to escape
Through the entire article, de las Casas discusses how great the Indians of the New World are. In paragraph 2 he states: "And all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady. The sons of nobles among us, brought up in the enjoyments of life 's refinements, are no more delicate than are these Indians, even those among them who are of the lowest rank of laborers.” They are also poor people, for they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or
In "The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca", Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s fight for survival, while being deprived of the basic necessities of life, proves there is a change in him from the beginning of the narrative to the end. This transformation, though, affected multiple aspects of de Vaca, including his motives, character, and perspective of civilization. Cabeza de Vaca’s experience is crucial to the history of America, as well as Spain, because it was one of the first accounts that revealed a certain equilibrium between the mighty and superior Spaniard and the Indian, once the Spaniard was stripped of his noble stature. The idea of nakedness is consistent throughout the narrative and conveys the tribulations he experienced and a sort of balance between him and the Indians. The original intentions of conquering and populating the area between Florida and a northern part of Mexico quickly shifted Cabeza de Vaca’s focus to the need to survive. His encounter with different Indian tribes and ability to get along with them (no matter what the means), and then prosper as a medicine man, shows that through his beliefs in Christian faith, and in himself, he turned the failure into an unexpected success.
...s others whether it is one of their own or someone completely different. This variance shows that instead of being vastly different as de Vaca often describes, the two groups were in reality equals. The best insight is de Vaca’s own words on the matter. At various times he describes the Indians as “savages”. However, at the end of his journey, he states that “Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way” (123). Cabeza de Vaca’s transformation from a condescending invader to a man declaring the need for kindness towards natives proves that his ideas towards Indians had transformed from superiority towards equality. If Cabeza de Vaca’s advice to governmental power on expansion had been heeded it is possible that the horrors of future imperialism would have been averted.
The movie La Jaula de Oro, is a life story of a journey of three kids from Guatemala to the United States. In the movie there are three kids Sara, Samuel, and Juan, they first embark on the journey through Mexico. When they first arrive to Chiapas, the kids put on a play to collect money for food, after the play Sara befriends this boy named Chauk. Who is an indigenous boy from Tzotzil, and also plans to get to America, and convinces them to come join the group. This group of kids is put through a lot during the film, it’s a very interesting journey for 4 kids to experience. This film shows the struggles and difficulties immigrants succumb and sheds some light into the harsh realities of what people don’t think about when they hear the word
Christopher Columbus discovered the America’s for Spain in 1492. The explorers and settlers that settled in Central and South America were mostly Spanish and Portuguese. The English took notice of the Spanish success in the America’s, so they decided to explore the upper part of the America’s, North America, in the late 1500’s.
... hardships he must face. Differing from other Spanish explorers Cabeza does not use violence as a means of spreading his word and eventually gains utter respect from the Indians he interacts with and even the respect of Indians that he has never met. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, Spanish explorers spread a wave of bloodshed and disease through the New World killing almost all of the natives indigenous to the land. Cabeza de Vaca stands apart from his counterparts in the fact that he used peace and kindness to win the hearts of the natives and successfully converted the Indians he met into Christians.
He gave everything back that the Native Americans gave him. He cured the Native Americans. He learnt their languages. For example, he learnt four Indian languages including Charrucos and sign language. Cabeza de Vaca learning their languages helped him make friends and gained more of their trust. Gaining more of their trust, they gave him more supplies.
Milanich, Jerald T. and Susan Milbrath., ed. First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States1492-1570. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 1989.
Cabeza de Vaca stories is a conversion narrative, which the conversion is the between Cabeza de Vaca 's thoughts of the Native Americans. In the beginning of Castaways, Cabeza de Vaca did not interact with the natives as much as he does later in his story. In chapter three of his book, Castaways, he says that the Indians and his group, Spaniards did not get along. Once his group reached Florida he states:
What he and his men did to the Indigenous people is told in horrifying detail by the Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas, “whose writings give the most thorough account of the Spanish-Indian encounter.” Las Casas witnessed firsthand Columbus’ soldiers stabbing Natives for sport, dashing babies’ heads on rocks, and sexually abusing Indigenous women. His testimony was corroborated by other eyewitnesses, such as a group of Dominican friars, who addressed the Spanish monarchy in 1519, hoping to bring an end to the atrocities. At the very least, Columbus was complicit in the actions of his men. He cared so little for the welfare of the Indigenous people that he let his soldiers commit reprehensible acts that would be considered crimes against humanity in the present day. Christopher Columbus’ actions suggest he had no issue with serving as an enabler of the horrifying actions committed by his men against the Indigenous
Rio Bravo, staring John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson to name a few, was released in 1959 and is the perfect example of a classic American Western genre film. The film blends American political and gender role ideologies with the classic genre conventions of a Western help Rio Bravo to deliver its somewhat understated message.
Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 discovered Florida and was later met by a southern Indian tribe that would cut Leon’s triumphant moment short. A second attempt to colonize in America was led unsuccessful by Panfilo de Norvaez in 1528. Many men were lost at sea and others were among the Indian people. The first Spanish expedition in 1539 to what would later be known as Florida was an invasion that would be soon attacked twice by natives. Herman de Soto and his group of men in 1542 were defeated along with the rest of the Spanish attempts. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was another explorer in 1540 that attempted to bring back any rare goods to Spain. The army traveled through the southwest and to the Great Plains, returning empty-handed.