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following information was taken directly
from the following source:
Center
for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest
Texas University
Historical
Background
The
Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca was
born in Jerez de la Frontera into a
family that took the title Cabeza de
Vaca, "head of a cow," from
his mother's side of the family. In
1212 one of her ancestors shepherd named
Martín Alhajahad helped the Spanish
Christians win an important battle against
the Moors in by marking an unguarded
mountain pass with a cow skull. The
Christians attacked, scoring a major
victory, and Alhaja and his descendants
were honored with the title Cabeza de
Vaca. In 1527 he was appointed the treasurer
of a royal expedition led by Pánfilo
de Narváez of about 300 men to Florida.
In April 1528 the expedition sailed
into Tampa Bay, began an overland march
to Apalachee Bay, and then attempted
to reach Mexico in makeshift boats.
Separated from Narváez, Cabeza de Vaca
led a small band of survivors to an
island, probably Galveston, where native
people captured the band. Early in 1535,
Cabeza de Vaca and the three other survivors
of the expedition Dorantes, Castillo,
and Esteban the Moore escaped and began
a journey across what are now the southwestern
United States and northern Mexico. In
1536 they reached a Spanish settlement
on the Sinalo River in Mexico. In 1537
Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain and
was rewarded with an appointment as
governor of Río de la Plata (now largely
Paraguay). His account of the Narváez
expedition, Relación and his tales of
the Zuñi and their villages, the legendary
Seven Cities of Cíbola, encouraged other
expeditions to America, particularly
those of the explorers Hernando de Soto
and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado.
An
early-Renaissance Spanish citizen grounded
in Christian philosophy, Cabeza de Vaca
in the Relación describes his struggle
to survive as foreigner, captive, slave,
and faith-healer among the native inhabitants
of what is now the southwest U. S. Often
near death from starvation and exposure,
he wandered from the Texas coast west
perhaps to New Mexico and, finally,
south to Mexico, where he encountered
fellow Spaniards.
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Historical
Significance
Cabeza
de Vaca is usually remembered for this
historical importance, and as William
T. Pilkington points out in his afterward
to the Cyclone Covey translation (University
of New Mexico Press, 1983), the
historical
significance of Cabeza de Vaca's wanderings
with three companions over six thousand
miles and eight years cannot be doubted.
The Spaniards' adventures in the uncharted
lands to the north ignited considerable
greed and ambition when the wanderers
appeared in Mexico City in 1536. . .
. [and] were the first link in a chain
of events that resulted in the Spanish
colonization of the Southwest. (145)
For
historians, Cabeza de Vaca¹s importance
comes from his having been the first
European to travel the Southwest and
to write reports that spurred increased
exploration of the region, but the text
has never been fully examined side-by-side
with important objects from the period.
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Anthropological
Importance
Cabeza
de Vaca's reports on his journey across
the Southwest from 1528-1536 include
information about numerous tribal bands
the Karankawas, Caddoes, Atakapans,
Jumanos and Conchos, Pimas, Opatas,
and the loose bands of hunter-gatherers
now called Coahuiltecans. Unlike many
other indigenous peoples in much of
North American, who were organized into
tribes, some quite complex, Cabeza de
Vaca encountered small wandering bands
of people who congregated seasonally
for celebrations called Mitotes. These
groups constituted small family groups,
which were for the most part, egalitarian,
with no chiefs, and usually no more
than 25 people. Among the artifacts
of importance at The Witte Museum are
numerous pieces from many of these native
peoples estates, stone materials, arrow
points, ceramics, and baskets. Donald
Chipman in Spanish Texas 1519-1821 (University
of Texas, 1992) points out the importance
of Cabeza de Vaca¹s memoirs to our understanding
of native peoples:
- The Cabeza de Vaca account .
. . is a primary document on the Karankawas
as well as inland hunting and gathering
cultures, for Cabeza de Vaca lived
among those groups and survived to
write about the experience. . . .
- His portrayals of the Mariames
and Avavares, with whom he lived for
about eighteen months and eight months,
respectively, make them the best-described
Indians of southern Texas; his account
is especially revealing of their cultural
traditions. . . .
Thanks
to firsthand observations recorded in
Los Naufragios, unique ethnographic
information is preserved. In Cabeza
de Vaca's narrative and the Joint Report,
the observations of three Europeans
and an African on early Texas landforms,
flora, and fauna are also recorded.
A careful reading and interpretation
of both sources does much to illuminate
the probable course of the Castaways
across the Texas landscape. No other
Spanish province within the present
United States was described so early
or with such detail. (243-44) His discussion
of these various peoples is the first
anthropological record about many of
them and for many of the archaic bands,
it is the only contemporary observations
available.
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Literary
Importance
Historians
and anthropologists have often pointed
to the importance of Cabeza de Vaca's
work, but usually for different reasons.
More recently, Cabeza de Vaca's Relación
has received increasing analysis as
a work of literature. Pilkington notes
that ³Cabeza de Vaca's more lasting
significance has been literary and cultural,
not historical.² Pilkington continues:
"Cabeza de Vaca was not only a
physical trailblazer; he was also a
literary pioneer, and he deserves the
distinction of being called the Southwest's
finest writer." Although some literary
scholars would dispute this assertion,
Pilkington bases his conclusion on his
belief that Cabeza de Vaca¹s book serves
as the prototype for much American literature
that followed: "One of its underlying
themes, for example, is the physical
emotional struggle for an accommodation
between races conflict that has never
been very far removed from the American
consciousness and one that has always
been a factor in the works of our best
and most vital writers. . . " (145-46).
And
Frederick Turner in Beyond Geography:
The Western Spirit against the Wilderness
suggests that Cabeza de Vaca¹s story
serves as the first captivity narrative,
which became the most significant early
American narrative and the basis for
the Western from Cooper to Eastwood:
Among
the thousands of artifacts left to us,
the inheritors of the centuries and
acts of exploration stone markers buried
deep in jungles, rusted bits of armor
accidentally exhumed, moldering slave
castles, sailing orders, and cairns
in wooded swamps perhaps none is so
absorbing as our legends of whites captured
by natives. And none might have as much
to tell us of the spiritual stakes involved
in exploration. (231)
Pulitzer
Prize winning historian William Goetzmann
finds a profound spiritual transformation
in Cabeza de Vaca¹s change from conquistador
to healer that resulted during his captivity.
Goetzmann writes, although his account
remains humble throughout, Cabeza de
Vaca's experiences begin to resemble
those of Christ himself as he toured
the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Hailed
as godlike persons and saviors, he and
the other Spaniards went from tribe
to tribe and band-to-band among the
Coahuiltecans and far across Northern
Mexico to Sinaloa, where at last they
found their own kind Christian Spanish
soldiers who "wished to make slaves
of the Indians we brought." As
the slave hunters were harassing the
Indians, the Indians contrasted them
to the four healers, creating what amounted
to an Indian set of beatitudes. (No
Traveler Remains Untouched 12)
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The
Controversy behind the Text
Not
everyone is convinced by Cabeza de Vaca's
self-reported conversion or the story's
impact. Some, such as SWT historian
Jesus de la Teja, question the authenticity
of Cabeza de Vaca's story, suggesting
that the real sub-text to his written
work is his desire to save his reputation
after a major failure and that his purpose
was to convince the King that he was
worthy of receiving another major appointment.
In this view, Cabeza de Vaca's opposition
to enslaving the Indians revealed simply
his support for the anti-slavery position
Spain endorsed at the time. Others question
the value that literary scholars place
on the captivity narrative. Still others,
such as anthropologist Thomas Hester
who will serve as a consultant for the
project, question the continuing use
of suggested routes now long discredited
by archaeological evidence. All of these
controversies will be examined in this
program.
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The
Healer or Shaman Tradition
Another
tantalizing and unexplored aspect of
Cabeza de Vaca¹s experience concerns
the possible importance of Cabeza de
Vaca as a healer as a foundation for
what exists today. He tells of his experiences
healing the sick by making the sign
of the cross over them and the growth
of his reputation:
During
all this time the Indians came from
many places to seek us and said that
we were truly children of the sun. .
. . [A]all of us became medicine men,
though I was paramount among us in daring
and in attempting any sort of cure.
And we never healed anyone who did not
then tell us that he was well, and they
were so confident that they would be
cured if we healed them, that they believed
that as long as we were there none of
them would have to die (73)
The
possibility that Cabeza de Vaca's experiences
as a healer may have begun a tradition
that continues until today has not yet
been fully established. Shamanism, the
belief system of hunter-gathering people,
seems to have crossed the Bering Strait
with the first people, who told of a
long time ago when all things, living
or inanimate, human and animal, shared
a cosmos and moved easily between the
world of flesh and spirit. When this
ability was lost, only a chosen few,
the shamans, could make the perilous
journey to the other world. In the spirit
world, the shamans interceded with the
supernatural forces for the well being
of the members of their communities.
When Cabeza de Vaca landed in the Southwest,
he was introduced to this shamanistic
culture and soon, as he reports, he
began to make the sign of the cross
over those who were sick and healed
them, he says, with an amazing success
rate. The native peoples came to believe
that he was a shaman; they were prepared
by their own traditions to accept his
signs as powerful. Like other shamans
or healers, he was treated with the
very best foods, elevated, and showered
with gifts.
For
contemporary audiences the fact that
Cabeza de Vaca may have been the first
curandero in Southwestern history will
have special interest. By combining
Christian iconography with native belief
systems, Cabeza de Vaca may have established
a cultural tradition that continues
to have a major impact across the Southwest.
Today throughout the region native healers,
curanderos (male) or curanderas (female)
have a tremendous influence on daily
lives. Some curanderos such as Don Pedrito
Jaramillo have achieved an almost cult
status with thousands of people visiting
his shrine just north of Falfurrias,
Texas, yearly, to leave candles and
pray for loved ones. Widely considered
a saint among Mexican Americans in the
Southwest, Don Pedrito was also known
as "the Curandero of Los Olmos,"
and even though he died in 1907, statues
and pictures of Don Pedrito still hold
places of honor in many south Texas
homes. Another indication of the continuing
importance of the curandera tradition
is the popularity of Rudolfo Anaya¹s
Bless, Me Ultima (1971), the classic
Chicano novel, whose title character
is a curandera.
Cabeza
de Vaca's own words demonstrate how
he and his compadres achieved healer
status, and artifacts at The Witte museum
help us understand the importance of
the healer or shaman to the native peoples
among whom Cabeza de Vaca traveled.
For example, included in The Witte collection
is a shaman gravesite with skeletal
remains and burial items from around
the 4th century. The many significant
artifacts buried with the shaman (his
pipe, hallucinogens, snake adornments,
mountain laurel beans, baskets, trinkets)
as well as his skull demonstrate the
status of healers among native peoples.
For example, the shaman's mandible includes
a full set of teeth, demonstrating that
his diet and health were much better
than the average tribal members, who
usually lost their teeth early. Although
the shaman's head (like other native
peoples¹ bones) cannot be displayed,
a brass reproduction of it is being
prepared and can be among the exhibits
of materials associated with our proposed
project on Cabeza de Vaca. By understanding
the long history of the importance of
shamans, healers, and curanderos, our
audience will be able to make a clear
connection between the experiences of
Cabeza de Vaca and their own lives,
especially the interpenetration of cultures
that continues to define the Southwest
and that will characterize the audience
viewing this program.
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Cabeza
de Vaca's Route
Another
question about Cabeza de Vaca's story
concerns the route of his travels. The
attempts to trace Cabeza de Vaca's route
demonstrate the difficulties in reconstructing
cartological detail based on experiences
recollected years after the fact and
based upon physical descriptions of
landscapes that have been significantly
altered since the original experiences.
For many years now the work of Cleve
Hallenbeck, an amateur historian, has
served as the basis for understanding
Cabeza de Vaca's route. Hallenbeck's
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: The Journey
and Route of the First European to Cross
the Continent of North America, 1534-1536
(Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company)
published in 1940, has been reexamined
so that now at least four separate possible
routes have been charted Hallenbeck's,
another by Alex D. Krieger (refined
by anthropologists T.N. Campbell and
T.J. Campbell and further refined and
championed by Chipman), another by SWT
historian Jesus F. de la Teja for novelist
James Michener in Texas, another by
historians Herbert Davenport and William
Davis, and another by geologist Robert
Hill. Chipman concludes:
Any
detailed analysis of the Cabeza de Vaca
journey requires . . . the route interpreter
[to] coordinate the texts . . . with
all available data physiography, time
and distance of travel, ethnographic
information, biota, geographic knowledge,
geographic perceptions of the castaways,
and the overall objective of the trek,
which . . . was to reach Panuco on the
gulf coast of Mexico. The problem with
too many route interpretations has been
the lack of objectivity, or a somewhat
myopic concentration on only one or
two indices. (³In Search² 142)
In
short, to understand Cabeza de Vaca's
route requires a thorough interdisciplinary
approach to the details and the nuances
of the text, which is the approach of
the program, we are designing.
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