Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative recounts his travels through the North American South from what is now Florida to Mexico. The purpose of his tail as noted in his introduction is to explain to the Spanish crown what he got out of the years spent in America. Though his mission was one of conquest, his story shows that due to a misjudgment of location the expedition quickly turned into a venture of exploration and survival. They begin with a group of ships that are soon lost in hurricanes as a partial result of the general’s decisions. Shipwrecked in Florida the group attempts to take rafts to their intended location but due to weather and unfavorable relations with some of the Indians they encounter these attempts fail leaving only a small number of survivors. Cabeza de Vaca and the few survivors then slowly make their way through the American Midwest traveling from group to group of Native Americans. Over the course of his travels Cabeza de Vaca transitions from slave to the Indians to intertribal merchant and finally to shaman healer in the name of the Catholic God. Throughout the narrative Cabeza de Vaca recounts numerous interactions with Native Americans. In my selection I wanted to give a sense of the movement of the narrative in his relations with the Native Americans while maintaining key moments in the plot of his story and historically relevant themes.
P 66 to middle of 67 Apalache
The passage describes the encounters with Apalache Indians. The first group comes in peace seeking the return of captives but another group attack de Vaca’s men as they attempt to make their way along the lagoon area.
This portion shows initial treatment of the Indian people by the Spaniards as they were taking captives of women and children and yet depending on the resources of the Indians to survive. The multiple Indian groups mentioned in the passage have different responses to the Spaniards, which reflects the varied experiences of de Vaca’s group early on in the narrative. The discussion of the poverty and unpopulated nature of the area is important because these reports reflect a very different experience than the conquistadors in the Aztec region and should have acted as a deterrent for future conquests in the area de Vaca encounters.
Middle of 70 to p74 How we departed from Aute
The entire group of men with de Vaca is suffering from lack of resources and many have fallen ill. Some of the men plan to abandon the group but their “good breeding” prevents them from leaving the service of the crown. Although lacking in skills and materials, the men construct rafts out of desperation, and leave the area by sea.
The direct address to “Your Majesty” hightlights the goal of Cabeza de Vaca’s writing. Also, De Vaca attributes all of the successes to the ordinance of God which is a pattern seen throughout the narrative. I chose this passage as representative of the struggles to survive that the group endures, but also because I felt that this passage was particularly interesting as a reader since his narrative takes on a survival action-adventure tone with mentions like that of cutting off horse tails for rope and shirts for sails.
End of 89 to bottom 93 Malhado
The group is in trouble with an Indian village but on good advice they were able to avoid the tribe’s attack. De Vaca continues this section with a long description of the people that he is enslaved to at the time. The end of the passage introduces the healing that de Vaca would perform along his route to Mexico.
This passage contributes to my goal of showing the changing nature of relations with the Native Americans because it demonstrates greater involvement in the life of the tribes. Along these same lines, de Vaca is slave to the Indians, which is the beginning of his development of a role within the population of Native Americans. With the description of the people we get details of their rituals surrounding death and marriage. We see de Vaca laying out a portrait of the Malhado people that contradicts the notion of Native Americans as lesser than the Spanish. Finally, I include the first paragraph of the next chapter as it brings in the beginning of de Vaca’s healing and shaman work, detailing both his ideas of healing and Native American methods.
Middle of 155 to top of 159 How they gave us dear hearts/ displaced peoples
This passage lays out their encounter with Native Americans who have already had some contact with other Christians. The people hide in the mountains starving for fear of enslavement or death if they return to their homes. In response de Vaca promises to negotiate for their safety.
This passage introduces yet another role that de Vaca takes on in his relations with the Native Americans as he is now acting with sympathy as a negotiator. The discussion of the response of the native people to the Christian invaders is both historically relevant for understanding other narratives of conquest and relevant to this narrative. Towards the end of the segment de Vaca comments on the state of the people’s poverty and on the gold and silver that is in the area. According to the footnote, this mention of gold is a response to future inquiries from the Spanish about the resources of the place. I find this note creates tension between de Vaca’s loyalty to the Spanish crown and sympathy and respect for the Native American people.
Middle of 160 to top of 163 Of how we sent for Christians
The passage sees de Vaca finally reach the people he intended to find at the beginning of the narrative, the Spaniards in coastal Mexico. The narration describes the interaction between Indians the Christians that de Vaca finds about how they are of the same people.
I think that the responses within the narrated dialogue flesh out the depiction of the three groups working in the area, the Christians, de Vaca, and the Indians. This passage ties particularly well with the previous one for explaining the situation that de Vaca finds himself in. Also we can see the distance that de Vaca has come in his status among the Native Americans as he has authority to make requests and is assumed to be a very important Christian.
While I would have liked to include such passages as the dedication as the Norton does, I feel like that left them less room to flesh out the narrative’s progression. If I had not read the original text I would not have gotten a sense of what de Vaca was doing throughout the narrative. I tried to track more of the geographic movement and change of relationship to the Indians to demonstrate the sense of movement in the narrative. They give us two passages of Native American description, which in a way presents the way that he meets and spends time with group after group of Indians. I thought that this was good but that the narrative could have been tied better with a passage from a later group of Indians as his focus in discussing them changes significantly. I do think, however, that their choices did a good job of covering a range of concerns that are most often considered in discussion such as gender roles, religion, etc.
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