Cabeza De Vaca Research Paper

All the World is Human

When Cabeza de Vaca came to the "New World" he was just one of over 300 conquistadores led by Panphilo de Narvaez. They sailed to the New World and landed in Flordia. Struggling to find their way through the swamps and wetlands, their problems only increased when they were killed one-by-one by the Native American tribes (the Seminole tribes). Hoping to save their lives after running out of food, the conquistadores went back to the sea. However when they arrived they saw that their ships and commrades had assumed that they were dead and left to sail back to Spain. The surviving conquistadores then built barges to sail down the coastline, thinking that Mexico was just one or two leagues away. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the barges captains led by Narvaez. Soon tempers flared and Narvaez and a few of the barges set sail across

There were many different tribes that he met between the Brazos and San Antionio rivers known today as Coahuiltecans. Life was still bad for Cabeza de Vaca but better than with the Karankawas, the people acted kinder towards him and they gave him food. So, he stayed with them and traded for them. He was trying to find a place for himself in their tribes, like we do today in our towns societies and day-to-day lives. He learned what it meant to be conqured, he got to feel what it was like when he was a conquistador and forced others to be slaves to them. Cabeza de Vaca watched their shamans using Peyote in their healing and ceremonies (like hunting ceremonies). He also did simple procedures like cutting out arrows from men who had been in fights, cauterizing wounds, and things like that. He eventually became seen as a type of shaman/medicine man as well. But, he was still a slave, and was beaten if he was caught trying to escape or run from them. He became increasingly more desperate to see his homeland