"From 'The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on the excerpts of The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca that are presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

"Dedication"

• Cabeza de Vaca dedicates the work to Emperor Charles V.  In this dedication, he asserts that it is his duty to relay his experience with the flora, fauna, and natives of the New World so that others who seek to conquer the lands may benefit.
• He also asserts in this dedication that he will be truthful and use understatement in throughout the narrative rather than employing hyperbolic language and creating fictitious events.

"The Malhado Way of Life"

•  Malhado: Galveston Island/The Island of Doom
• In this section of the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca writes about the Capoques and the Hans of coastal Texas.
• They are a tall, well built people who use only bows and arrows.  Additionally, they pierce their nipples and hips.  The women of the two tribes "toil incessantly" (42).
• They eat roots and fish from October to February.
• They have great love for their children and treat them well.
• The funeral practices of this group of people include great mourning for those who die young, but no mourning for those who die in old age.  Additionally, mourners are provided by their neighbors with food for three months because they do not leave their homes for that period of time.
• Men have only one wife each, with the exception of the medicine men, who may have three or four wives who live in harmony with one another.
• Men have no relationships with their in-laws, but women have relationships with their parents and the parents of their husbands.
• For three months of the year, the people eat only oysters and 'bad' water.  
• To this effect, Cabeza de Vaca notes that he sometimes went three or more days with no food during this time.
• This excerpt of Cabeza de Vaca's narrative ends with a description of the island and how the Capoques and the Hans are different from one another.  He also notes how the two groups interact with one another.
• There is a brief note about how April is a time of fiestas and dances for these people.  The excerpt of the section ends abruptly at this point.

"Our Life Among the Avavares and Arbadaos"

• This section of the narrative discusses the Avavare and Arbadao people who are located in inland Texas, beginning with his time with the Avavares.
• The Avavare people do not keep time by sun or moon and do not measure time by months.  Instead, they acknowledge seasons and keep time by reading the position of stars.
• This group of people also suffer more want than the Hans and the Capoques because they lack corn, pecans, acorns, and fish.
• Cabeza de Vaca notes that six of the eight months he spends with this group are based in hunger.
• From the Avavares, Cabeza de Vaca and his group venture one day's journey to the Maliacone people and travel with them looking for food while they wait for cactus pears to ripen for harvest/eating.
• The Maliacones meet up with the Arbadaos, who are weak, emaciated, and have a swollen look to them.  Cabeza de Vaca and his men leave the Maliacones and stay with the Arbadaos in their village.  Here, they suffer more want than they have to date.
• During his narrative about his time with the Arbadaos, he confides that he is naked, sun-burnt, and often cut and bloodied by thorns.  He states that this state of being leads him to take solace in the sufferings of Christ.
• Also during this time, he and his three fellow survivors subsist on scraps of raw meat which they find when cleaning hides.  They also earn some food by trading with the Arbadaos when they can.

"Pushing On"

• This section of the narrative discusses Cabeza de Vaca's journey onward from the Arbadao people.
• From the Arbadao, they leave and head for another group; however, they become lost along the way, so they pause to harvest and back some prickly pears before continuing on.  They are able to find their way, and eventually arrive at the village.
• At this village, the people ask the visitors to bless their sick.
• When the time comes for Cabeza de Vaca and his men to leave, the village expresses unease at his leaving to go with another group, but the explorers leave the Native Americans crying for them to stay.

"Customs of that Region"

• In this section of the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca describes the practices and customs that are shared by all the groups with which he has spent time.
• Child bearing:
• Men cease sleeping with their pregnant wives as soon as it is known that she is pregnant.  He continues to not sleep with her for two years after the child's birth.  The child is nursed for 12 years in order to keep him/her nourished enough in times when food is scarce or absent.
• Marriage:
• Childless men may leave their wives and reconnect with another woman.
• Men who have children never leave their wives.
• Arguments:
• Married men fist-fight with one another if an argument arises; during these fights, only women may attempt to intercede.  The men then have a cooling off period during which they go live in the scrub wood until they can be friends again.
• Single men leave to neighboring people for their cooling-off period and return rich and happy and thus willing to be friends.

"The First Confrontation"

• This section of the narrative describes Cabeza de Vaca's excursion into Mexico.
• Cabeza de Vaca describes nearing Christians.  Because he knows they are close, he and one of his party along with eleven of his Native American followers go to find them.
• Once he finds the Christians, he is taken at his request to their captain, who turns out to be Diego de Alcaraz.  Alcaraz tells Cabeza de Vaca that he is in trouble because he cannot find and capture Indians to be slaves.
• At this revelation, Cabeza de Vaca infroms Alcaraz that he is traveling with an envoy of natives.
• Alcaraz sends riders for Cabeza de Vaca's other two companions and the Native Americans who have followed him.
• Cabeza de Vaca notes that all of this occurs approximately thirty leagues from San Miguel.

"The Falling-Out With Our Countrymen"

• After Cabeza de Vaca's following of Native Americans feed and supply Alcaraz and his men, the two groups of Spaniards argue about Alcaraz's intentions to take Cabeza de Vaca's Indians as slaves. 
• Cabeza de Vaca repeatedly attempts to send his Indians home; however, they will not leave him without securing him in the hands of another group of natives.
• Cabeza de Vaca's Native Americans refuse to believe that Alacraz and Cabeza de Vaca are countrymen becaues the two men are so different.  The main differences that are noted in the text are that Alcaraz came from the sunset, kills men who are sound of body, wears clothes, is horsed and has lances, and robs others while bestowing nothing in return.  Conversely, they see Cabeza de Vaca as having come from the sunrise, as a healer to the sick, as one who is naked and barefooted, and as one who covets nothing but reciprocates all.
• Cabeza de Vaca is eventually able to entreat the Native Americans to return to their homes and resume their normal lives.
• Cabeza de Vaca closes this section by exalting the land and its people as blessed and provides a brief description of his arrest after he liberates his following of six-hundred Indians.

My Thoughts:

The thing that I find most interesting in this whole text is the dedication.  This is because Cabeza de Vaca makes it clear that he believes his knowledge is something that he should share with others who may find themselves in similar situations to those he experienced.  This is quite the opposite of what Columbus describes in his "Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" in which he adamantly rejects the idea of others benefiting from his work.

The only other thing that I really have anything to say about in this narrative is from the section, "The Falling-Out With Our Countrymen."  This is because I find this section particularly confusing.  According to the author headnote, Alacraz seized the six-hundred Native Americans who were with Cabeza de Vaca when he went into Mexico.  This is not, however, illustrated in the narrative.  Instead, Cabeza de Vaca portrays the occurrence as though he liberated the Native Americans and, in doing so, angered Alacraz to the point that he arrests him.  Perhaps, since Cabeza de Vaca was sympathetic to the Native Americans and did not wish for them to be seized and made slaves he wished to seem a champion of them in his narrative; however, it rings untruthful and goes against the "Dedication" in which he pledges to tell things as they happened.  To me, this creates a question of truthfulness elsewhere in the narrative, though overall, I am inclined to believe the majority of what Cabeza de Vaca writes.