Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: American Trailblazer

by Robin Varnum

In November 1528, almost a century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the remnants of a Spanish expedition reached the Gulf Coast of Texas. By July 1536, eight years later, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490–1559) and three other survivors had walked 2,500 miles from Texas, across northern Mexico, to Sonora and ultimately to Mexico City. Cabeza de Vaca’s account of this astonishing journey is now recognized as one of the great travel stories of all time and a touchstone of New World literature. But his career did not begin and end with his North American ordeal . Robin Varnum’s biography, the first single-volume cradle-to-grave account of the explorer’s life in eighty years, tells the rest of the story.

During Cabeza de Vaca’s peregrinations through the American Southwest, he lived among and interacted with various Indian groups. When he and his non-Indian companions finally reconnected with Spaniards in northern Mexico, he was horrified to learn that his compatriots were enslaving Indians there. His Relación (1542) advocated using kindness and fairness rather than force in dealing with the native people of the New World. Cabeza de Vaca went on to serve as governor of Spain’s province of Río de La Plata in South America (roughly modern Paraguay). As a loyal subject of the king of Spain, he supported the colonialist enterprise and believed in Christianizing the Indians, but he always championed the rights of native peoples. In Río de La Plata he tried to keep his men from robbing the Indians, enslaving them, or exploiting them sexually—policies that caused grumbling among the troops. When Cabeza de Vaca’s men mutinied, he was sent back to Spain in chains to stand trial before the Royal Council of the Indies.

Drawing on the conquistador’s own reports and on other sixteenth-century documents, both in English translation and the original Spanish, Varnum’s lively narrative braids eyewitness testimony of events with historical interpretation benefiting from recent scholarship and archaeological investigation. As one of the few Spaniards of his era to explore the coasts and interiors of two continents, Cabeza de Vaca is recognized today above all for his more humane attitude toward and interactions with the Indian peoples of North America, Mexico, and South America.

388 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2014

Reviews

[Joseph Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are only about four or five sources of information about Cabeza de Vaca and this author, it seems to me, artfully weaves them into one comprehensive and comprehensible narrative. There is much we don’t know about Cabeza de Vaca such as the years of his birth and death.

Cabeza de Vaca, we are told, means “Head of a Cow” in Spanish. This was an honorary tile bestowed on Cabeza de Vaca’s grandfather after he affixed a cow’s skull on a post to direct Spanish troops through a little known mountain passage that was crucial to a great military victory.

“Cabeza de Vaca,” we are also told, is a full name, similar to Lloyd George, and should not be shortened.

Its always great to read a true story about someone who rose up and triumphed over adverse circumstances such as ignorant leaders, an austere environment and hostile Indians. Unfortunately during Cabeza de Vaca’s time in Paraguay he was overthrown in a coup d'etat and never got the chance to return there to seek retribution. The judgment of history favors him but it would have a happier ending if the Spanish authorities had ruled unequivocally in his favor. His nemesis was a Basque who has been described as the prototype for the Latin American strongman.

At least one of Cabeza de Vaca’s earlier biographers concluded that his life came to an unhappy end but Robin Varnum believes that the totality of the evidence shows otherwise. I like to believe she is right.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thesis appears to be an extremely well-researched biograph delving into the experiences of this Spanish explorer of the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500's. There is detailing of his life in post-inquisition Spain, followed by detailing of his life among various indigenous peoples from Florida and Cuba to Central America to Texas and Mexico. He finds himself dependent upon them and learns many things about survival as well as their cultures. As this piece is very detailed, it is best absorbed in lecture-length spans. Fortunately, the narrator makes it all palatable with clear speech and a pleasant voice.

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thesis appears to be an extremely well-researched biograph delving into the experiences of this Spanish explorer of the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500's. There is detailing of his life in post-inquisition Spain, followed by detailing of his life among various indigenous peoples from Florida and Cuba to Central America to Texas and Mexico. He finds himself dependent upon them and learns many things about survival as well as their cultures. As this piece is very detailed, it is best absorbed in lecture-length spans. Fortunately, the narrator makes it all palatable with clear speech and a pleasant voice.

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

[Gerald McFarland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very impressive piece of historical scholarship. Cabeza de Vaca's two sixteenth-century sojourns in Spain's New World, the first his epic journey, often naked and barefoot, from the Gulf Coast of the future United States to the west coast of today's Mexico, and the second a troubled period as the Spanish administrator of its new possessions in South America, are traced by Varnum with great care. She soundly grounds Cabeza de Vaca's remarkable adventures in exceptionally well-researched ethnographic information, introducing the reader to numerous Native America groups, many of which no longer exist. A major accomplishment all around!

[Frank Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and enthralling biography of the great explorer Cabeza de Vaca. I had no idea all that de Vaca accomplished or the great expanses of uncharted territory he "discovered" and traversed. A well written and highly enjoyable book