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 This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Núñez and the second is Cabeza de Vaca. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, ca. 1490/1507 – Sevilla, ca. 1557/1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition. He is remembered as a proto-anthropological author for his accounts of Native Americans, first published in 1542 as La Relacion (The Report), and later known as Naufragios (Shipwrecks).
[edit] Early life and educationCabeza de Vaca was son of Teresa Cabeza de Vaca y de Zurita. In 16th century documents, his name appeared as "Alvar nuñez cabeça de vaca". Cabeza de Vaca means "head of cow". This surname was granted to his mother's family in the 13th century, when his ancestor Martin Alhaja aided a Christian army attacking Moors by leaving a cow's head to point out a secret mountain pass for their use. In the prologue to La Relacion, his account of his shipwreck and travels in North America, Cabeza de Vaca refers to his forefather's service to the King, and regrets that his own deeds could not be as great, due to forces beyond his control. [edit] Narváez Expedition and early Indian relationsCabeza de Vaca was treasurer, and thus one of the chief officers, of the Narváez expedition. He and three other men were the only survivors of the party of 300 colonists who landed near Tampa Bay, Florida on April 15, 1528.[1] As the navigators were unsure of their location, de Vaca thought it prudent to keep the land and sea forces together. Narvaez and the other officers, excited by rumors of gold, overruled him and started off on a march through Florida, promptly getting even further lost. After several months of fighting the native inhabitants through wilderness and swamp, they reached Apalachee Bay with 242 men, believing themselves near other Spaniards in Mexico — although there were in fact 1500 miles of coast between them. The men were starving, wounded, sick, and lost in swampy terrain, but came up with a plan for escape. Slaughtering and eating their horses, they melted down their stirrups, spurs, horseshoes and other metal parts, fashioned a bellows from deerhide to forge tools and nails, and constructed five primitive boats they would take in search of Mexico. de Vaca commanded one of these vessels, each of which had room for only 50 men. Depleted of food and water, they followed the coast westward, until they reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. The current swept them into the Gulf and the five rafts were separated by hurricane, some lost forever, including that of Narvaez. Two crafts of about 40 survivors, including de Vaca, wrecked on or near Galveston Island. The explorers called it Malhado, or Island of Doom.[2]. They made an attempt at repairing the rafts, where they used what remained of their own clothes as oakum, but they lost the rafts to a large wave. As the number of survivors dwindled rapidly, they were enslaved for a few years by various Native American tribes of the upper Gulf Coast. These included the Hans and the Capoques. Only the final four men, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Castillo, and an enslaved Moroccan Berber named Esteban (later called Estevanico), survived and escaped to reach Mexico City. Traveling mostly in this small group, Cabeza de Vaca explored what is now the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the northeastern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, and possibly smaller portions of New Mexico and Arizona. He traveled on foot along the then-Spanish territories of Texas and Nuevo Santander coast. He continued through the New Kingdom of León, Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya; then down the Gulf Coast to what is now Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly eight years. He lived in conditions of abject poverty and, occasionally, in slavery. He was naked the whole time, ever since having sacrificed his clothes for the making of the watercrafts. During his wanderings, passing from tribe to tribe, Cabeza de Vaca developed sympathies for the indigenous population. He became a trader, which allowed him freedom to travel among the tribes. Cabeza de Vaca came to see his survival and journey in religious terms, in that he claimed to have been guided by God to learn to heal the sick, and to have gained such notoriety as a faith healer that he and his companions gathered a large following of natives who regarded them as "children of the sun", endowed with the power to both heal and destroy. Many natives accompanied the men across what is now the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. After finally reaching the colonized lands of New Spain where he encountered fellow Spaniards near modern-day Culiacán, Cabeza de Vaca went on to Mexico City. From there he sailed back to Europe in 1537. Numerous researchers have struggled to trace the exact route travelled by Cabeza de Vaca. Given the doubtful reputation of the chronological and geographical information presented by Cabeza de Vaca, it is difficult to discern his exact course. As he did not begin writing his chronicle until back in Spain, he had to rely on memory. Cabeza de Vaca was uncertain of the route he traversed. [edit] Return to SpainCabeza de Vaca wrote about his experiences in a report for king Carlos Ⅰ of Spain. It was published in 1542, under the title La Relación (The Report). Later called Naufragios (Shipwrecks), it is considered a classic of colonial literature. Cabeza de Vaca wanted to return to Florida and succeed Pánfilo de Narváez as governor, but king Charles had already appointed Hernando De Soto to lead the next expedition. Cabeza de Vaca declined to travel with the expedition as second in command. [edit] Return to AmericaIn 1540, Cabeza de Vaca was appointed adelantado (governor) of the Río de la Plata. His mission was to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires.  En route, he disembarked from his fleet at Santa Catarina Island in modern Brazil. With an indigenous force, 250 musketeers and 26 horses, he followed native trails[3] discovered by Aleixo Garcia] overland to the district's Spanish capital, Asunción, far inland on the great Paraguai River. Cabeza de Vaca is thought to have been the first European to see the Iguaçu Falls, considered by many to be the most spectacular in the world. The honor probably belongs to his scouts. The second founding of Buenos Aires was also unsuccessful. By February 1543, the settlement was abandoned. Cabeza de Vaca had an unusually sensitive and benevolent attitude toward the American Indians, which led to resentment among the privileged settlers known as encomenderos. This attitude, together with the failure of Buenos Aires, prompted the former governor Domingo Martínez de Irala to arrest him for maladministration in 1544 and return him to Spain for trial in 1545. Although eventually exonerated, de Vaca never returned to the colony. He wrote an extensive report on South America, which was highly critical of de Irala. The report was bound with his earlier La Relación and published under the title Comentarios (Commentary). [edit] Tribes mentioned by name in the RelacionCabeza De Vaca recorded numerous native tribes with whom he interacted during his journey from Galveston Island, Texas in 1528, to Culiacan, Mexico in 1536. Below is a list; together with later known tribal names as proposed in 1919,[4] they include: Possible Karankawan groups:
Related to Karankawa:
Possible Tonkawan groups:
Possible Coahuiltecan or Desert groups:
[edit] AncestorsAncestors of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
[edit] Bibliography[edit] English
[edit] Spanish
[edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] Sources[edit] External links
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