Cabeza De Vaca

The book “A Land So Strange” by Andrés Reséndez basically illustrates 8 years of long odyssey from what is now Tampa, Florida to Mexico City on Cabeza de Vaca’s perspective. Cabaza de Vaca along with his companions named Andres Dorante, Alonso del Castillo, and Estebanico, are survivors of failed expedition to New World from Spain during 16th century. Unlike other members from the expedition, these four members found a way to live with native Indian tribes to survive. They were slaves of Indians and treated cruelly all the time. However, after long period of time of being slaves, they decided to make escape to Spanish territory. During their fugitive period, they had chance to help injured Indians. Their knowledge of certain medicine,

Cabeza de Vaca changed drastically though 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 also develops a more accepting and worldly mind. When he first meets Native Americans he terrified that they’re going to sacrifice him#, because 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. However, the Cabeza de Vaca from the end of the book would know better. He develops a lot of empathy for the natives and their plight at the hands of the Spanish,

However, he then goes on to say how deeply moved they were, which is somewhat ironic. It's almost as if Cabeza de Vaca and his followers know that the Indians aren't truly unworthy creatures but they use what everybody already agrees upon to manipulate their supposed worthiness and justify their claims. He also goes on to explain the warrior-like tendencies of the Indians and how fierce and relentless they are. He describes them by saying, "whoever has to fight Indians must take great care not to let them think he is disheartened or that he covets what they own. In war they must be treated very harshly, for should they notice either fear or greed, as a people they know how to bide their time waiting for revenge and take courage from their enemies' fears. After using up all their arrows, they part, each going his own way, without attempting pursuit, although one side might have more men than the other. Such is their custom." (68) They have these customs that are very unnatural and are not normative behavior. Cabeza de Vaca refers to the customs of the Charruco Indians with great

A third reason Cabeza was able to survive was he was useful to the Natives. Good evidence of this is when Cabeza proved how useful he was when he saved one of the Natives. Document C shows a report of Cabeza using his knife to cut open the man’s chest and removing an arrow. Cabeza stitched the man up and he was healed. This act made Cabeza of use to the Natives, because they realized that keeping him alive and able to heal others was important to them. This evidence also explains how Cabeza stayed alive, because without Cabeza showing himself to be of use to the Natives, they may have seen him as a threat and killed him right then and there.

Cabeza de Vaca is writing to the Spaniards great commandeer, giving reasons for the Indians way of living on how they are to do with man, even more so than they are. The tribes are great communities that look out for each other. They do have some damaging marks but not as shocking as one would have in mind. In this time the male ruler and other persons from Europe

But for de Vaca, it must have been a lot harder. The Indians – who had transformed him into a famous spiritual healer and a better person,

Cabeza de Vaca was known for his discovery of America. He documented his trek in America, as a lost traveler, exposed to unfamiliar territory, multiple hardships, and the native Indian tribes. His journal entry over his reencounters with the Christians is only a small record over his adventures on the whole Narvaez Expedition of 1528. The document was published in Spain, 1542, at a time when dispute over the mistreatment of natives in America in their colonization became a subject to resolve. His journal entry discusses his brief experience in an Indian tribe, the news he receives of nearby Spanish men penetrating the tribal communities, and the realization that the “Christians” were not a character he thought they were. Cabeza de Vaca sympathized the indigenous tribes and believed that they should not face the cruelty the Spanish settlers set in order to

According to a picture in Document C, Cabeza de Vaca respectfully healed a Native Americans open wound on his shoulder. This shows that Cabeza de Vaca had respect for this particular tribe, and if he helped these Native Americans then the tribe could give him resources or help him when he needed it. Document D also shows how Cabeza de Vaca met the Spaniards and, the encounters that he made with them. If Cabeza de Vaca wasn’t as kind as he was, he could’ve possibly died from some of these Indians. Another source that shows he was respectful is Document B. In Document B it shows that from 1530-1535 Cabeza de Vaca learned four Indian languages, including Charuccos, plus sign language. Since he learned these languages, you can communicate with tribes, and make

The fact that the textbook decided to expound on the details of Pizarro and Peru that were happening around the same period of time rather than the accounts of Cabeza de Vaca proves the necessity of primary sources and the advantage they have in further understanding the past. During the 1930s, Cabeza documented his journey across the American Southwest. In his documentation, he describes the environments and lifestyles of the many Natives he came across to. These Natives aided Cabeza and his companions in throughout their expedition with food in exchange for their skills in treating the sick. For the most part, it is understood that he and his friends were treated really well by the Indians stating that the women of one of the tribes “…brought many mats, with which they built us houses, one for each of us and those attached to him.” It was interesting to know how the explorer’s group would continue to grow as the journey continued. Cabeza and his companions met up with people who would “tender all they possessed” and immediately follow them after being “depraved of their belongings.” As the traveling became gruesome with lack of food and rugged mountains, only the strong continued to guide. It was at this point when Cabeza had reached a landmark in his expedition; his fellow traveler Castillo “had found permanent houses, inhabited, the people of which ate beans and squashes, and that he had also seen maize.” After settling on a stable land with permanent homes and crops, Cabeza shifted his focus in searching for Christians which successfully did so. This entire story highlights the unique elements behind the the many explorations to the New World. Cabeza’s expedition contributed to the Spanish Conquest and encouraged other Spanish explorers to embark on a search for

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel America without anything but three partners and your feet? Well that's what Cabezas did and he went through extremely tough tasks. In 1527 five Spanish ships left a port in Seville He escaped from Indians, he was stranded on Galveston island after being in a raft with his fellow castaways, and after that, escaping Indians again and walking to Mexico. Most people would ask how Cabeza survived, and if they did I would tell them that Cabeza De Vaca survived because of his wilderness skills, success as a healer, and his respect for Indians.

He was forced to forget, and lost who he was. When he did return to Spain he couldn’t stand to wear clothes, and slept on the floor for a while. Solnit states that “He had lost his greed, his fear, been stripped of almost everything a human being could lose and live” (Solnit 70). Cabela De Vaca was unrecognizable to his friends. Physically he was almost the same, but mentally he had lost everything he had learned. This is a great example by Solnit on how someone can become lost. She does tell another story on a young girl named Eunice Williams whose family was captured by French and Indian raiders. Her and her brother were adopted by a Penacook chief. Eunice grew accustomed to the customs of the Native Americans. She married a Native American man and had two children. Her family though of her as lost. Solnit states “The Williams Family never ceased to mourn her loss and to regard her as spiritually lost as well” (Solnit 73). Eunice Williams had become lost forgetting who she was just like Cabela De Vaca. She was forced to become someone else, and led to her forgetting who she was

One of the biggest obstacle’s Cabeza De Vaca had to endure were the many Indian tribes he encountered. Some were friendly, many were violent, and others where just curious. It seemed from the very start Cabeza De Vaca was able to experience the many actions, emotions, and traditions that came with the Indian’s, which helped him accommodate and grow closer to the different Indian tribes. Whether it was him observing the ignorance of the Avavares Indians in there way of telling time, the lack in understanding of the seasons, or the immoral practices of the Mariames and the Yguaces Indians killing young children and slaughtering men and women, Cabeza De Vaca experienced it all, and his greatest asset was his skills of

He is known as the man who walked through Texas to get to Mexico City. His journey was 2,500 miles. How did he survive? Cabeza de Vaca survived because of his wilderness skills, his success as a healer, and his respect for the Native Americans.

If the Native Americans told their side about the people they held captive, the treatment would have seemed more justified. A good example of this was when a captive named Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca talked about laughing at how the Native Americans wanted them to act as physicians without even seeing any credentials. He mentions that they “cure others by blowing upon the sick”. When the captives laughed at orders to do the same, the natives took offense to that and took away their food privileges. They did this because they saw the captives as great men that “possess power and efficacy over all things”. With this mindset Cabeza de Vaca and his people should have been able to help out with the healing rituals. From the Native point of view it

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, c. 1488/1490/1492[1] – Seville, c. 1557/1558/1559[1]/1560[2]) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La Relación ("The Relation", or in more modern terms "The Account"[3]), which in later editions was retitled Naufragios ("Shipwrecks"). Cabeza de Vaca has been considered notable as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of American