Cabeza De Vaca New World Analysis

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The accounts of Spanish explorers in the Americas each provide a unique representation of the “New World.” In the first-person chronicle of an explorer’s turbulent, nine year journey through the American southwest, The Relation, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca writes “I hope in some measure to convey to Your Majesty not merely a report of positions and distances…but of the customs of the numerous people I talked with and dwelt among, as well as any other matters I could hear of or observe” (28). Having lived alongside the Native Americans, deep within the landscape, De Vaca attempts to deliver an accurate and candid representation of the “New World.” His disenchanted portrayal illustrates how America was not a miraculous land, devoid of civilization

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