Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

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Categories: 1490 births | 1559 deaths | Spanish explorers and conquistadores | Explorers of North America

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490 – c. 1559) was an early Spanish explorer of the New World and is remembered as a protoanthropological author. A member of the Narváez expedition, he, Moorish former slave Estevanico, Andres de Dorantes and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado were the only survivors of a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. The four were enslaved by a Native American tribe of the upper Gulf coast, but later escaped and eventually reached Mexico City.

Traveling mostly in this small group, Cabeza de Vaca explored what are now the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on foot from coastal Louisiana to Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly six years. During his travels he developed sympathies for the indigenous population unusual among the conquistadors. Among the Natives he became a faith healer, curing the sick with his prayers. Eventually, after returning to the colonized reaches of New Spain and encountering a group of fellow Spaniards in the vicinity of modern-day Culiacán, he went on to Mexico City and returned to Europe in 1537, where he wrote about his experiences in a work called La relación ("The Tale"). One motivation for publication of this work was Cabeza de Vaca's desire to succeed Pánfilo de Narváez as governor of Florida.

Instead, in 1540 he was appointed governor of La Plata, in what is now Argentina and surroundings. As in North America, he was unusually sensitive and benevolent towards the Native peoples. He was the first European to behold the Iguazu Falls, among the most spectacular in the world. Political intrigue against him caused his arrest and return to Spain in chains, in around 1545. He was eventually exonerated and wrote another book, Comentarios ("Commentary") about this experience.

External links

• Cabeza de Vaca The Journey of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
• PBS website for Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
• Cabeza de Vaca's Journey to the Southwest
• Cabeza de Vaca's La Relación – contains hi-res photography of the 1555 edition of La Relación.
• The journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536, hosted by the Portal to Texas Historyde:Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

es:Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca fr:Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca nl:Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ru:Кабеса де Вака, Альвар Нуньес