Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Spencer Lambert
ENGL 48A
Journal for Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
December 2, 2009

"Conferring among themselves, they replied that the Christians lied: We had come from the sunrise, they from the sunset; we healed the sick, they killed the sound; we came naked and barefoot, the clothed, horsed, and lanced; we coveted nothing but gave whatever we were given, while they robbed whomever they found and bestowed nothing on anyone."
Internet Quotation: "By the end of his long journey, Cabeza de Vaca became transformed. The once-arrogant conquistador became a passionate defender of Indian human rights." - Texas State University-San Marcos Cabeza de Vaca Project

Summary: The first quotation comes from the point where Cabeza de Vaca meets fellow Christians in the new land he has been trekking across essentially as a native. I think it portrays the two-sided Christianity that had been accentuated by the exploration. On the one hand were people like Cabeza de Vaca who had respect and kindness for the natives, realizing their humanity and treating them as human like any good Christian would do. Opposite them were the explorers Cabeza de Vaca met up with, who display an arrogant, eurocentric perspective that fails to respect or even acknowledge the kindness of the native peoples. This dichotomy of Christianity remains today, I believe. Now it isn't so much native Americans, but gays, Muslims, atheists, and all of those other groups that some Christians can get along with and some would like to wipe from the face of the earth.

The second quotation is from a project that provides the original text of La Relacion online. It speaks to how Cabeza de Vaca changed by coming into contact and living with the natives. Experiences like Cabeza de Vaca's are still the best way to understand a group you may feel animosity or indifference towards. By seeing how they live, work, and play, their humanity becomes readily apparent.

My Ideas: Cabeza de Vaca is certainly easier to stomach than Columbus. The fact that he got naked and went around from village to village as a native is refreshing and a great look at life for the native Americans he came into contact with. What we see in these people is an overwhelming friendliness that has them foregoing food to feed these strangers. Imagine that kind of hospitality today. You'll get a stern telling off before a slice of bread from a stranger.



While I enjoy the anthropological passages that detail the daily life and customs of the native peoples, I found the end of our reading the most interesting, because we are able to see a good Christian, bad Christian interplay between Cabeza de Vaca and the settlers he meets. These settlers are here for whatever profit they can make, and what they can make are slaves. After a group of natives brings them food, they immediately think they should take some of them as slaves. How warped is that? Cabeza de Vaca's angered response shows how he came to care for the people that had taken him in. There is a passionate response to the Christians that is unlike much of what one hears about from the period.

I also find Cabeza de Vaca's name for them, usually simply "the Christians," somewhat humorous. For how can these slavers be Christians? They care nothing for the amiable natives around them, instead desiring only food and slaves. A strange type of Christianity to be sure. By repeatedly calling the Christians, Cabeza de Vaca is able to highlight the problems with Christianity in the new world. It isn't the Christianity of Spain, but rather an offshoot, a malignant growth that led to the forced enslavement of millions of people from the moment Columbus landed.



I don't know what more to say, really; this reading is quite clear. As Cabeza de Vaca says himself, "Better than to exaggerate, I have minimized all things." He gives a clear account that employs cultural relativism to display his time spent among the natives while simultaneously condemning Christian explorers. The prose is simple, the narrative clear.

This is a perfect reading, I think, to end this journal. We've encountered some of the most vile ills of American society, but this reading shows that there has been hope for goodness since the beginning. Slavery, war, and disease all came to America when America became known as America. Our country did not have the most auspicious beginnings, but that doesn't mean things cannot change for the better.

Also, the man's surname is literally "Head of Cow." That must be the most wonderful name I've ever heard, and therefore the most wonderful way to end this journal.