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THE Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca essay
Religion and its impact on the world
Narrative writing personal experience
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Cabeza de Vaca was sent to fulfill the quest of claiming territory from Florida to Mexico for Spain. His choice to become a conquistador sent him through an unforgettable journey that he never saw coming. Landing in Florida with his large army, he eventually got split up from his army. Cabeza de Vaca and his men were the few survivors out of everyone who went. Landing in Galveston they found the Karankawa Indians and began living like there slaves. He discovered that his experiences were different from other Spanish conquistadors. He no longer wanted to take away from these people. Cabeza de Vaca got caught up in trading among the native groups. He traded in many items, he became known among the natives and they welcomed him for trading. He also became known as a healer, he claimed to have supernatural powers that showed through his beliefs in his Christian faith, and in himself. Indians stuck to him asking for his healing. Cabeza de Vaca and his group were viewed as these powerful beings. …show more content…
This transformation affected several characteristics of de Vaca. Which included his purpose, character, and viewpoint of the natives. Being a conquistador, he was on a mission to seek the new world, explore, and take it. He changes when he realizes that the natives are humans too and there is no reason why they can’t be civil. I feel that his journey has had a positive impact on him. He spent a long time traveling like a slave with the natives learning more about them and their culture. He began to realize that the native people were not inferiors that needed to be defeated, but they were humans like himself. I do not think that he had other options, he was shipwrecked, starving, and desperate. He didn’t have many other choices except to start exploring alone with his
Cabeza de Vaca survived by using intelligent strategies that kept him alive just barely. Cabeza used his great communication skills for survival. He was also an amazing healer. Another reason is he had amazing talent with navigation. Overall, Cabeza was a strategist, and he was very smart.
From a proud Conquistador, to a castaway, a slave and trader, and then medicine man, Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore much of the southern coast of Texas. Cabeza was a 37 year old military veteran in 1527 when he left on the Narvaez Expedition to find gold and colonize the Gulf Coast. He was the expedition’s treasurer. Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved by Indians in 1528 when one of the rafts the crew made crashed on present day Galveston island, he then escaped in 1530 and joined/was enslaved by another tribe called the Charrucos until his escape with 3 other survivors in 1534. He then walked to Mexico City. Cabeza survived this ordeal because of the incredible patience he had, his skills of diplomacy and goodwill, and his amazing wilderness survival skills.
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
...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.
... 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.
Las Casas emphasizes on three main issues throughout his account. First, in almost each chapter, Las Casas writes about the luscious qualities of the land and the different indigenous peoples that inhabit them. Second, he explains and describes in detail how the natives were rapidly being massacred by the invading Christian Europeans. Finally, Las Casas discusses how God had brought justice to the Europeans for their diabolical acts upon the natives. Las Casas, a former slave owner himself, realized that those whom he previously enslaved were just as much human and capable of learning and practicing the Christian faith as he was. As a bishop, he realized he could do little for the Natives except document his experiences (in as much detail as possible) and hope that the royal administration would have sympathy for the Natives and establish laws to protect them from the Europeans.
As the values of the Indians, the natives that Cabeza De Vaca encountered on his eight year journey, that were roaming the south are compared to the moral values of the Spanish and then to the
He eventually made it back to Paraguay and tried to set policies aligned with his new perception of humanity that benefited the Indians, but they chained him up and sent him to Spain. Had Cabeza de Vaca not been an advocate for the Indians, he would have remained in Paraguay. The consequences of the shift in his thinking of humanity, that the Indians should be treated as well as the Spaniards, were false charges of mistreating the Indians and being unable to return to the Americas. He stayed in Spain until his death in
Although still very inexperienced, in 1497 Vasco da Gama was chosen to lead the first expedition to India. He took four vessels to embark on the journey with him, including his own flagship the St. Gabriel. He chose to sail south along the prevailing winds of Africa in hopes of the journey taking less time than it should. After a few months of his travels, Vasco and his crew arrived at what is now known as Mozambique because the majority of his crew had come down with scurvy. Consequently, they had to reside there for nearly an entire month to rest and repair. Eventually, Vasco and
Imagine hiking roughly 2,000 miles while facing incredibly dangerous blazing hot deserts and steep mountains and doing that in 21 months. In the spring of 1527, five Spanish ships left the port of Seville and headed for the new world. Cabeza set out with 300 other men to shore where they would start a very long expedition. Cabeza drifted out to sea on a raft and came back to shore into current day Galveston, Texas. In the fall of 1532 Cabeza de Vaca started the long trek with three other survivors from modern day Texas to modern day Mexico City, and he
In La Relacion, the narrator and his crew were coming from Spain and landed in what we know today as Tampa Bay, Florida. The main purpose of the explorers was to find gold, take it back to their home country, and receive fame and wealth in return for their discovery. The main leader of the expedition was a Spanish explorer named Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. He is the narrator of this story, providing the first European account of the interior of the New World. Cabeza de Vaca is primarily concerned with how the king sees him when they return to Spain; he does not want to be seen as a failure. Therefore, when writing his account, he tends to only speak of his own heroic actions. In Of Plymouth Plantation, William
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
Cabeza de Vaca was a Spaniard that traveled to the New World in search of silver, gold, and other riches. Unfortunately, he found the Native Americans spent 8 years surviving in the their tribe. In his narrative of these 8 years, Cabeza de Vaca effectively tells Europeans of the Expedition he went on and the humanity of the Karankawas.
The massive silver cross being carried by Native Americans in the closing of this movie sensationalize the way in which the Europeans conformed the 16th century world to Christianity. Cabeza de Vaca directed by Nicolas Echevarria gives insight into what was Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s extraordinary journey. Europeans wanted to explore distant lands to spread their beliefs and they needed explorers to do the job. Cabeza stepped up and the experience he got was life altering. When he returned to Spain his ideas of the Roman Catholics would never be the same. Nicolas Echevarria does an adequate job in on behalf of Cabezas story. His strong suits were taking the viewers back in time however he lacked the entertainment value that would allow more
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, he directly addressed Spanish royalty, discussing the hypocritical barbarities Spanish conquistadors committed in the name of colonization in New Spain. Las Casas based his argument off a few, isolated incidents. Las Casas definitely exaggerated his description of these incidents in order to influence the Spanish crown to protect the Native Americans in the New World. He was given credibility for his priesthood, however, his work has since been discredited by historians - his version was filled with inconsistencies. Nevertheless, he achieved his goal to defend the Native Americans, earning the formal title of “Protector of the Indians”. Las Casas’ overall message with his extravagant claims