Cabeza De Vaca

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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,

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

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

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

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,

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

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,