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Overview
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.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780806147369 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 388 |
| Sales rank: | 994,842 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Álvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca
American Trailblazer
By Robin Varnum
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Copyright © 2014 University of Oklahoma PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4736-9
CHAPTER 1
Jerez de la Frontera
At the time of Cabeza de Vaca's birth, Spain had not yet come together as a nation, and the kingdoms of Castile and Aragón were culturally and politically distinct. Cabeza de Vaca's native Castile was larger than Aragón and had an Atlantic orientation. Its economy was based on herding and on warfare against Muslim infidels. Aragón, by contrast, had a Mediterranean orientation and a mercantile economy. Despite these disunities, the country that would become Spain was, in 1492, at the center of three world-shaping events. The first occurred on January 2, when the last Moorish king of Granada surrendered his kingdom to Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragón, thus concluding the Reconquista. Jubilant Christians raised a cross that morning and flew the banners of their king and queen from the highest tower in Granada's fabled Alhambra Palace. The second event occurred in March, when Isabel and Ferdinand signed an edict requiring all Jews in their jurisdiction either to accept baptism or to leave their realms. Then, on April 17, the queen and king listened favorably to the proposals of a Genoese explorer they previously had rebuffed. Their victory in Granada had freed up their resources and made it possible for them to invest in westward expansion. The Ottoman Turks in the eastern Mediterranean were blocking Christian access to Asia, so Christopher Columbus's idea of sailing westward to reach India, China, and Japan seemed attractive. Another factor that swayed the queen and king was that the rival kingdom of Portugal was aggressively exploring the African coast and establishing trading monopolies there. Isabel and Ferdinand signed a contract with Columbus, both authorizing his voyage and staking a royal claim to whatever territory he might discover. Ironically, the day on which Columbus sailed off in search of China, 2 August 1492, was also the day on which the Jews were compelled to leave Spain. The third world-shaping event of that momentous year occurred on October 12, when Columbus made landfall on the island of San Salvador.
For those Christians who took part in the Reconquista, the most glorious event of 1492 was their victory in what they viewed as a holy war against Islam. But for their sons and grandsons, the most significant of the year's events would prove to be the Columbus landfall. Men of Cabeza de Vaca's generation, fueled by the same crusading zeal that had sustained the Reconquista, would follow Columbus to the New World and claim it for Spain and for Christ. As the historian Francisco López de Gómara observed in 1552, "the conquests of the Indians commenced once that of the Moors was completed so that the Spaniards would always be warring against infidels."
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca must have grown up hearing stories about how the Moors from Islamic North Africa had invaded his homeland in 711 and how, over the ensuing centuries, Christians had gradually pushed them back toward Africa. The boy's father and grandfather and a long line of his ancestors had participated in the Reconquista. No record of Cabeza de Vaca's birth has been discovered, but judging from statements on legal documents filed after the deaths of first his father and then his mother, he cannot have been born earlier than 1485 or later than 1492. He was old enough when his father died in 1506 not to require a guardian, but he was not yet twenty-five (the age of legal majority) when his mother died in 1509. At the very end of the Relación he published in 1542, Cabeza de Vaca identifies himself as the "son of Francisco de Vera and grandson of Pedro de Vera, the one who conquered [Gran] Canaria" and says that his mother "was named Doña Teresa Cabeza de Vaca." In the same context, he identifies himself as "a native of Jerez de la Frontera," a fortified town in the province of Andalusia. His father was an hidalgo, or gentleman belonging to the lowest level of the Spanish nobility, and his mother was the daughter of an hidalgo. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was his parents' third child and their first son.
The boy's name came exclusively from his mother's side of the family and was given in honor of her wealthy uncle and her great-grandfather, both of whom had also borne the name "Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca." Of his two surnames, the future explorer favored "Cabeza de Vaca" over "Núñez." His favored surname was a distinguished one and appears in the chronicles of Castile from the thirteenth century onward. "Cabeza de Vaca" means "head of a cow," and the three words form a unit that should not be shortened or subdivided.
In the thirteenth century, according to a legend that may be apocryphal, a shepherd named Martín Alhaja directed an army of Christians under King Alfonso VI of Castile to a mountain pass in the Sierra Morena so that they might surprise an army of Moors on the other side. Alhaja marked the entrance to the pass with a cow's skull mounted on a stake. The Christians crossed the pass and, on 16 July 1212, won a decisive victory in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Shortly thereafter, King Alfonso knighted Martín Alhaja and bestowed the honorific name of "Cabeza de Vaca" upon him. Most of the major cities of Andalusia fell to the Christians within the next few decades. Seville was liberated from the Moors in 1248, and Jerez de la Frontera was liberated in 1255. The name of Cabeza de Vaca's hometown derives, in part, from its strategic location on the frontier between Christian and Moorish territories.
Jerez de la Frontera stands at the edge of an escarpment overlooking Spain's southern Atlantic coast. It is an ancient city and was colonized by the Phoenicians and by the Romans long before it came under the control of the Moors. The Phoenicians introduced viniculture and winemaking to the region, and Jerez has been known ever since for its wine. Today it is known particularly for its sherry. Cabeza de Vaca's hometown is roughly equidistant from the Atlantic seaports of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Cádiz, and approximately fifty miles southwest of Seville. Jerez is also south of Andalusia's major river, the Guadalquivir, which runs through Córdoba and Seville and reaches the Atlantic at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. During the years the Moors controlled Jerez, they fortified it with a 2.5-mile encircling wall and an alcázar, or fortress. When Christians recaptured the town, they took over these fortifications and converted the existing mosques to churches. Jerez still boasts of its rich heritage of Mudéjar (or Moorish-style) churches.
In 1477, when Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand made an official visit to Jerez de la Frontera, Cabeza de Vaca's father, Francisco de Vera, was one of the hidalgos given the honor of carrying the royal canopy. At the time of Cabeza de Vaca's birth, his father was serving on Jerez's municipal council. Cabeza de Vaca was proud of his lineage, and many years later when he sailed for South America, he took a copy of his family genealogy with him. His grandfather Pedro de Vera was a purveyor of supplies to the royal army during the final phase of the Reconquista. At various times, Pedro de Vera served as alcalde (municipal judge) in the communities of Jimena, Arcos, and Cádiz. While in Jimena, Vera ran so short of wheat that he found it necessary to borrow some from the Muslim lord of Málaga. To secure the loan, he had to leave Francisco and another of his sons as hostages. Later, Vera led successful plundering raids on the North African cities of Fadala and Larache and brought booty and slaves back to Castile. Vera seems to have assumed, like most hidalgos of his generation, that victors were entitled to enslave the vanquished.
By custom, Queen Isabel, acting either alone or in concert with her husband, signed contracts, or capitulaciones, with enterprising hidalgos like Pedro de Vera who undertook to lead military actions against infidels in Iberia and North Africa. Such contracts authorized the action and, in the event of victory, both guaranteed certain rewards to the commander and secured ultimate authority in the conquered territory to the royal crown. The capitulaciones provided Isabel with an orderly means of extending her power, and she subsequently made similar contracts with the men who undertook, in her name, to conquer the Canary Islands and the Americas. From a commander's point of view, the capitulaciones served as a reasonable guarantee that he would be compensated for his expenses, rewarded for his services, and granted title to the spoils of his victory.
However, according to a testimonial filed by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1537, his grandfather was disappointed in his expectations of compensation for the services he had performed for his queen. Pedro de Vera had contracted with the queen, not only to lead the raids on the North African cities, but also to conquer Gran Canaria, one of the major islands in the Canaries. According to his grandson, Vera conquered the island at his own expense, selling part of his land to finance the undertaking. He was subsequently appointed military governor of Gran Canaria, but he received no other compensation from his queen. When he died, Vera had relatively little to leave to his heirs.
The Canary Islands were the first of many prizes taken by Castile in its expansion westward. Europeans had discovered the Canaries early in the fourteenth century, and for a time they were claimed by both Portugal and Castile. The islands were inhabited by the Guanches, an agricultural Jerez de la Frontera people who had been living there for thousands of years. Spanish Christians saw the Guanches as idolaters, and although fighting with idolaters who were ignorant of Christianity was different from fighting with Muslims who willfully rejected Christ, the Spaniards persuaded themselves that their war against the Guanches was no less just than their war against the Moors. The war in the Canaries was integral therefore to the evolution of Spanish thinking about what constituted a just war, and it would pave the way for later wars against the idolatrous Indians of the New World. The Canary Islands would also prove useful as a staging base for Spanish expeditions to the Americas.
It took Pedro de Vera six years to subdue Gran Canaria. He built a fortress on the coast at Gáldar, but the Guanches retreated to the island's high peaks, which were inaccessible to the Spaniards' horses. Vera led his forces on foot into the mountains and, after killing the Guanche chief in hand-to-hand combat, succeeded in defeating the indigenous warriors. In reprisal for the deaths of Spaniards, Vera burned many captive Guanches at the stake and forced the others to accept Christianity. Then, although Queen Isabel had banned the enslaving of Christian converts, and although she wished to protect the Canary islanders, Vera sent 240 baptized Guanches to Spain to be sold as slaves. No doubt this was his way, in default of compensation from the queen, of financing his war of conquest. After his victory in Gran Canaria, Vera participated in the conquests of the neighboring islands of Tenerife and Gomera. In 1488, when the Guanches of Gomera killed their Spanish governor, Vera quelled the uprising, slaughtered all the indigenous males over the age of fifteen, and sold their women and children into slavery. For this, he incurred the censure of the Catholic Church, a substantial financial liability, and a recall to Castile. Vera defended his treatment of the Guanches on the grounds that they "were not Christian but the children of infidels and traitors who had murdered their lord." Slaves from the Canary Islands served in Vera's household in Jerez de la Frontera and perhaps in the household in which his grandson, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was growing up.
Throughout his life, Cabeza de Vaca seems to have admired his grandfather very much. In 1541, when he took formal possession of a territory in what is now Brazil, Cabeza de Vaca named the area "the province of Vera" in his grandfather's honor. Judging from what little is now known about Pedro de Vera, it is hard to see what his grandson found to admire. And yet the older man clearly was brave and resourceful. He was described by his contemporaries as "expert in battles on sea as on land" and "very Christian." And even though he was recalled to Castile for overstepping his authority, Vera had won glory in Gran Canaria and captured a valuable territorial prize. There can be little question but that Cabeza de Vaca aspired to follow his grandfather's career path as a conquistador and a colonial governor.
If, as is reasonable to assume, Cabeza de Vaca in his youth was much like other young Castilian men of his class and generation, he was jealous of his honor and motivated by ambition, the desire to get rich, and the hope of measuring up to his ancestors. He must have wished to serve God and his queen, and must have seen himself as the queen's vassal. In Castile's hierarchical social organization, Queen Isabel sat at the head, with a small number of titled nobles below her, and a larger number of caballeros (knights) and hidalgos below them. The peasants, who constituted some 80 percent of the Castilian population, rented the land they worked and paid seigneurial dues to their overlords. The titled nobles were vassals to the queen, owned 97 percent of the land in her kingdom, operated as regional warlords, and feuded among themselves. Hidalgos served as vassals to the titled nobles, performed military services for them, and strove to enrich themselves in the process with the spoils of conquest. During the long years of the Reconquista, they had repeatedly plundered their Muslim neighbors. In later years, those who sought their fortunes in the New World would primarily be hidalgos and the younger sons of titled noblemen.
Spaniards first learned of the lands on the far side of the Atlantic in 1493, when Columbus returned to Spain, claiming to have discovered a westward route to the Indies. But as time would tell, he had actually visited the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola. On 31 March, Palm Sunday, Columbus made a triumphant entry into Seville. Bartolomé de las Casas, the future historian and champion of Indian rights, was in Seville and observed that Columbus brought seven captive Taíno Indians with him. According to Las Casas, Columbus also brought "many other things never before seen in Spain," including "beautiful green parrots," "masks made of precious stones and fishbone," and "sizeable samples of very fine gold." The royal court—which in that era had no fixed seat—was residing for the moment in Barcelona, so in April, Columbus met there with Isabel and Ferdinand.
The king and queen immediately appealed to Pope Alexander VI for papal recognition of their claim to the lands Columbus had discovered. On 4 May 1493 the pope issued a bull giving Isabel, Ferdinand, and their heirs and successors sovereignty over "all islands and mainland found and to be found" west of a line running from pole to pole through a point one hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. At the same time, Alexander VI assured Portugal of its sovereignty over all its newly discovered lands east of the line. Portugal was unhappy about the division, however, and contracted with Spain in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas to shift the line of demarcation 270 leagues westward. As a result of this treaty, Brazil would become a Portuguese possession. In making his 1493 donation, Alexander VI did not consider the territorial rights of the indigenous peoples of the newly discovered lands. He did, however, charge the king of Aragón and the queen of Castile with teaching the Indians to accept Christianity. The royal couple acknowledged the obligation and took it to heart.
Alexander VI conferred an additional honor upon Isabel and Ferdinand and named them the Catholic Kings. From that time forward, the queen was known as Isabel the Catholic and the king as Ferdinand the Catholic. In many ways the reign of the Catholic Kings was an illustrious one, except for two black stains upon it. The first was their establishment, in 1478, of the Spanish Inquisition. The second was their expulsion of the Jews. Even the Italian political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli, who saw Ferdinand as "the most famous and most glorious of all the kings of Christendom," accused the king of "a pious cruelty, expropriating and expelling from his kingdom the Marranos [Jews]: an act without parallel and truly despicable."
The purpose of the Inquisition was to root out heresy, for Ferdinand and Isabel saw doctrinal orthodoxy as an essential component of political unity. Under the Inquisition, suspected heretics could be imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Neighbor informed against neighbor and could do so in complete secrecy and safety. Even an accusation of heresy could ruin a suspect's reputation and that of his or her family. Condemned and unrepentant heretics were publicly burned. The lives of repentant heretics were spared, but their property was confiscated. The Inquisition bred a climate of mistrust and encouraged corruption, blackmail, and the settling of personal feuds. Isabel's secretary estimated that by 1490 two thousand men and women had been burned by the Inquisition in Spain. The especial targets were converted Muslims and Jews, the latter of whom were known as conversos or marranos. If suspected of practicing their former religion, or even simply lighting a menorah, conversos could be imprisoned.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Álvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca by Robin Varnum. Copyright © 2014 University of Oklahoma Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations,Preface,
Acknowledgments,
1. Jerez de la Frontera,
2. Pánfilo de Narváez,
3. The Caribbean,
4. Florida,
5. Apalachee,
6. Castaways,
7. Texas,
8. The Children of the Sun,
9. The Overland Journey,
10. New Spain,
11. Further Explorations,
12. Río de la Plata,
13. Asunción,
14. The Search for Gold and Silver,
15. Mutiny,
16. The Royal Court,
Glossary,
Notes,
Works Cited,
Index,