Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca Term paper
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Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
Most peoples' exposure to world history is limited to several classes in school and action films. This creates an aura of glamour and excitement, which is far from the reality that conquistadors such as Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca experienced. In light of the intolerable hardships that many of these early explorers were forced to endure, what motivated men like de Vaca to join such perilous adventures? Cabeza de Vaca's life and journey to North America are intriguing because through his extended encounters with the Native Americans he became known as the compassionate conquistador.
Cabeza de Vaca was born in 1490 to Spanish nobility; his ancestors being warriors and explores. Cabeza joined the army in his teens and distinguished himself as a fine officer. He was a respected veteran and dedicated to his country and the King when he was appointed treasurer and second-in-command of the 1527 expedition to the New World (Bishop). De Vaca was a career military man and it was an honor to accept the King's appointment to conquer new lands (the whole Gulf Coast of North America) for his country, Spain. He had seen the hero's welcome and the great wealth received by the lucky ones returning victoriously. The governor of this expedition said… "That he and his followers were going to fight and conquer nations and countries wholly unknown, and in subduing them he knew that many would be slain; nevertheless, that those who survived would be fortunate, since from what he had understood of the opulence of that land, they must become very rich." (Jameson)
Besides heritage, patriotism, fame and fortune, de Vaca's devotion to God was another driving force in his life. In writing his narrative, de Vaca addressed the Sacred Catholic Majesty saying his writings would be important "to those who in our name [Spain] go to subdue those countries and bring them to a knowledge of the true faith and true Lord, under the imperial dominion…."(Jameson) His ardent faith gave him great desire to convent to Christianity the inhabitants of the New World.
The incredible hardships of these explorations are hard to believe. The fact that in 1527 a fleet of five ships and 600 men left Spain and ten years later de Vaca with three other survivors returned, speaks for itself. After landing in Cuba, the fleet continued to the coast of southwest Florida. For the next eight years de Vaca proceeded on foot and makeshift rafts along the Gulf Coast. (See map @ end) The details are gruesome, documenting potential death from many directions. Starvation was constantly battled. Weeks past where de Vaca had only a handful of corn for a day's ration. He tells of 18 months with one group of Indians where "the greatest luxury I enjoyed was on the day they would give me a skin to scrape, because I scraped it very deep in order to eat the parings, which would last me two or three days." (De Vaca) Cannibalism was noted among some. Men died from drowning, thirst, murder, infection, and exposure. At one place where de Vaca was forced to stay for several seasons, he had no clothes and exposure to the sun and air covered his body with big sores making it very painful to pull heavy loads, with ropes cutting in to his arms. Sometimes, by the end of the day he would have lost so much blood he had no energy to drag the load out (Bishop).
How could he persevere? To de Vaca's way of thinking, human suffering was the fate of all good Catholics (Sheppard). Time after time Cabeza de Vaca was given strength by his unquestioned faith in God and belief that he was there for God's divine purpose, that was guiding him to where he could better serve...
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