Cabeza De Vaca Research Paper

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 was originally part of the 600-man Narváez Expedition, and in the end was one of four survivors. The trip was highly disastrous, on the literal first page he tells how local inhabitants “seduced more than 140 of our men to the desert”#.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is best known as the first Spaniard to explore what we now consider to be southwestern United States. His nine-year odyssey is chronicled within the book The Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition. His account is considered especially interesting because it is one of the very first documents that illustrates interactions between American natives and explorers. However, when examining the exploration of the modern United States, there are many arguments that have to do with the entitlement to the land and the motivations behind settling in the first place. Most explorers were obviously in favor of their own conquests and Cabeza de Vaca is of course no exception. In Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition, Cabeza de

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 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

Can you imagine setting sail with about 600 men on a conquest hoping to successfully complete a task. Instead your castaway and you are one of four survivor’s out of 600 men; We can all attempt to imagine, but this was reality for Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. In the early 1500’s Alvar Nuñez was amongst the first Europeans to step foot in what is known as North America today. The narrative and film Cabeza de Vaca Relacion and Cabeza de Vaca the film, recounts the trials and tribulations of the eight year journey. The film adaptation of Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition compares to the text in many ways. The film is merely a mirror to the narrative and although the film is not as long as the book it gives its audience visual validation of the hardships Alvar Nunez and his men endured, The way in which Alvarez was inhumanly treated by the Indians and how Alvar Nunez became popular and respected in the Indian community.

Cabeza made use of all the food that the indians gave him and that included spiders,snakes and rats. (document B). He used hit a branch from a tree that was struck by lightning and just kept walking. NIght after night he would huddle in a hole with his fire ( Document D).Cabeza did all these things because without it he would not have been able to survive his journey through Texas.

Cabeza de Vaca went through many things that gave him a new outlook. He was a slave and then considered to be a scared healer. On his return to Spain Cabeza de Vaca reported of the inhumane treatment of the natives. New laws about the treatment of natives were taken.

On June 17, 1527, Cabeza de Vaca set sail on the order to conquer and govern the lands from the Rio Grande to the cape of Florida. However, during his journey he encountered much devastation such as the wrecking of his ship which resulted in his separation from the majority of his Christian companions. Praying to God after every ordeal, Cabeza routinely sought after his Christian religion to guide him through his unexpected journey. While traveling through the interior of America, he also encountered many native tribes which inhabited the land. While most of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century spread their religion through warlike ways and rearranged societies

Cabeza de Vaca’s survival or wilderness skills assisted him throughout the expedition,like he drank water from hollowed out horse leg container etc.He learned 4 indian languages plus the sign language to communicate with the native american tribes.As a slave,Cabeza ate whatever was available like berries,mollusks,rats,roots,snakes,lizards and even spiders! He befriended his captors to trade with the Indians within 150 miles of the Gulf Coast.During cold weather he also lit fire to keep him warm.”Cabeza happened on a smouldering tree that had been struck by lightning,he lit a branch in the dying flames and kept the torch burning as he walked”(document-B).Cabeza made the best of what he could find like the tree struck by lightning

Cabeza de Vaca survived in Texas because of his amazing wilderness skills. While in Texas, Cabeza learned a few things. He learned to eat whatever he could find including spiders, rats, roots, lizards, snakes, berries, and mollusks. He also used a tree that was struck by lightning to light a torch and keep him warm in the cold nights he experienced (Doc. B). Cabeza could eat whatever he found and thus, was never starving. The torches that he had lit could give him warmth and a way to scare off possible predators that might eat him

This famous conquistador did many things, but I think the one linking most with his survival on his harsh journey was his wilderness skills. “Cabeza de Vaca drank water stored in hollowed out horse leg containers” (document B). Document A displays the treacherous distance of his walk and the terrain he would have to travel through. These display how he used the environment and his materials to his advantage such as the horse legs. It also shows that Cabeza must have had lots of skills to wayfare that long distance with almost no

Cabeza de Vaca was lost and alone in the swamp wetlands of the San Antonio Bay. He was naked, his feet were covered in mud, and he was covered in mosquitoes, but he was still able to survive. Cabeza de Vaca was on a expedition with Panfilo de Narvaez along with 300 other men to establish settlements along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The 300 men were ordered to leave the ships by Panfilo de Narvaez on modern-day Tampa Bay, Florida to search for treasure. While they were all looking for their treasure, they didn't know that the would never see their ships again. Now the only thing that mattered was not colonization, it was survival. Cabeza de Vaca survived by healing the native americans, respecting the native americans, and using his wilderness skills to survive.

Cabeza was a strong smart man, when he was “thirsty he would drink water stored in hollowed-out horse-leg containers. When he was hungry as a slave he ate what was available, including berries, mollusks, rats, roots, lizards, snakes, and spiders. ”(Doc. B) With these wilderness skills, he lived through all of it, wasn't fun but better than

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan were the sole survivors of a four hundred men expedition. The group of them went about the friendly Indian tribes preforming miracles of healing, with the power of Christianity. At one time five sick persons were brought into the camp, and the Indians insisted that Castillo should cure them. At sunset he pronounced a blessing over the sick, and all the Christians united in a prayer to God, asking him to restore the sick to health, and on the following morning there was not a sick person among them. De Vaca and his companions reached the Pacific coast where the Indians, showed signs of civilization, living in houses covered with straw, wearing cotton clothes and dressed skins, with belts and ornaments of stone, and cultivating their fields, but had been driven therefrom by the brutal Spanish soldiery and had taken refuge in the mountains, de Vaca and his comrades, being regarded as emissaries from the Almighty, exercised such power over these untutored savages that, at their bidding, the Indians returned to their deserted habitations, and began again to cultivate their fields, the assurance being given them by de Vaca and his companions that henceforth they would