The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca - A Land So Strange

I have really enjoyed reading this book. You feel trapped in Cabeza de Vaca's adventures right from the first few pages. I keep telling my friends how amazing this story was, and how miraculous it is that he and his companions endured so as to cross the continent from Florida to the Pacific Coast of Mexico, most of the path by foot.

But it is shame that the store took so little care in converting this book to the Kindle format. If maps are important in travel books, here are crucial. And yet the pictures have been digitized with so little resolution that it is barely impossible to read any text in them (no, trying to enlarge the pictures does not work). I've even tried to look for similar pictures in Internet but didn't find them. So it is a pity that you have to pay some $10 for a book that in digital form is so deceitful.

As someone who loves history, I looked forward to reading this incredible tale of exploration and survival. Unfortunately the author managed to take an extraordinary story and snuff the life out of it. Characters were bland, the adventurous spirit of the period rendered pale and void of emotion. The ending seemed rushed, as if the manuscript deadline was due but rather than being disappointing it was a relief to be done.

The story of Cabeza de Vaca's nine years wandering the wilds of the newly discovered American continent is the stuff that myths are made of. Originally a subordinate leader in an ill-fated expedition to Florida, he found himself, thanks to ignorance and bad luck, washed up on the coast of Texas with nothing (not even clothes upon his back) except his faith in God and a determination to get back to civilization. It took him nine years to do it, but do it he did, albeit with the help of more coincidences and chance meetings than one finds in a typical Dickens novel. In those nine years he went from leader to castaway to slave and then amazingly became a revered faith healer. He was a virtual rock star among the Indian tribes. Of course, an experience like this changes the soul of a man. Did he come to believe that God truly had blessed him with the gift of healing? I've read Cabeza de Vaca's NARRATION and Paul Schneider's excellent BRUTAL JOURNEY, but this book is even better. Author Resendez has done some impressive scholarship and has come up with a fast-paced, yet highly detailed version of Cabeza de Vaca's story. The explorer's route has been debated for five hundred years. Did he walk across Texas, or was it northern Mexico? Resendez makes a strong case for the Mexican route, based primarily on geographical evidence and research of ancient trade routes, combined with close readings of Cabeza de Vaca's report and the Joint Report filed by the four main castaways. One thing I really appreciate about this book is that Resendez tries to give an idea of the context of the times. The other characters are presented in more detail than I have read previously, especially the wily Estebanico, the Moorish slave of Cabeza de Vaca's companion, Andres Dorantes. Esteban could speak at least three languages (Spanish, Arabic, and Berber, and maybe Portuguese as well) before venturing to the New World. His linguistic facility helped him to quickly pick up the Native American languages, which was of great use to the Spaniards. Resendez states flatly that Esteban was murdered when he returned again to North America a few years later. According to Schneider, however, no one really knows what happened to him and it is quite possible that he merely "went native" and joined the Indian tribes as many of the other Spaniards had done in Florida and the Caribbean. The book includes excellent maps, notes, an index, and an 18-page "Further Reading" section.

The primary sources for this epic tale are the official transcript of and report on the testimomy of three of the survivors and Alzar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's 1542 narrative report on his 8 year odyssey from what is now Tampa, Florida to Mexico City.

Andrés Reséndez retells this story in a hugely entertaining and informative way. The book is well written and fast paced. The numerous maps, illustrations, detailed footnotes and extensive bibliograpy are extremely helpful. Many of the footnotes add significantly to the narrative and could have been made part of the text. Reséndez demonstrates an easy mastery of both primary and secondary materials. His expertise enables him to set the original Narvaez expedition in context and to provide valuable background information on all the major players.

Beyond the almost miraculous survival of the Royal Treasurer Cabeza de Vaca, Captains Andres Dorantes and Alonso del Castillo, and the black slave, Estebanico, the central puzzle of this survival saga is how these four sole survivors out of a force of over 300 managed to go from essentially captive slaves to shamans and revered healers. Reséndez provides a reasonable explanation: Castillo's father was a physician from Salamanca, Spain's great university town, and that his exposure to basic medical practices and demeanour probably equipped him with sufficient knowledge to effectively deal with certain illnesses. Castillo's family heritage plus the practical extensions of what these well-travelled soldiers had seen or personally experienced - for example, the extracting of an arrow and the suturing of the wound - helps partially explain their transformation from slaves to successful shamans. Reséndez also persuasively suggests that the Christianity of at least three of the four, their openness to the miraculous plus their ability to maintain a certain humility helped cement their roles as healers.

In explaining how the four survivors became shamans, Reséndez does a much better job than Paul Schneider in his recent retelling of the same story (Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America). (I reviewed Schneider's book two years ago and was struck by the limited way in which he addressed this issue. Schneider's book is still very good - but not nearly as informative as Resendez's.)

Reséndez also sketches out Cabeza de Vaca's almost modern and certainly more truly Christian views of the Indians and how to work with them. He sharply, unemotionally and objectively contrasts Cabeza de Vaca's enlightened views with the brutal, exploitative and counter-productive views of most leading Conquistadors - particularly Guzman and Mendoza - who were more interested in enslaving the indigenous population. Reséndez interestingly notes how Cabeza de Vaca's efforts to implement his more humane views when he became Governor of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) failed due to both the resistance of the Spanish settlers and the Indians. Latin America may have turned out a completely different place, if Cabeza de Vaca's approach to colonization had been adopted.

"A Land So Strange" is the remarkable story of would be Spanish conquistadors whose ill-fated journey through North America was marked by starvation, drowning, enslavement, and other miseries. Resendez is an excellent writer and provides an impressive history of Spanish activity in 16th century North America. The intrigue and machinations of Spanish colonial politics are well documented. He portrays Cabeza de Vaca as the man who, because of his unique appreciation for Indian humanness, could have changed the course of Spanish colonization. Ultimately, Cabeza de Vaca had a chance to implement his vision of cooperation with natives in South America but his administration was a failure and he endured years of legal proceedings in Spain. The substantial Further Reading section is worthy of consultation. For those looking for other great works on early Spanish colonial history in North America, I recommend Simmons's "The Last Conquistador."

The raw material for this epic sets the stage for one of the most incredible tales of endurance and discovery of all time. Unfortunately, the "storytelling" prowess of the author was not fully up to the task, in my opinion. The author comes off more as a solid academic treading somewhat tepidly into the tradecraft of a mainstream author. I can't help but think what would be possible with this source material in the hands of a master storyteller. Also, the editing felt subpar, and was a little distracting at times, (a few typos, concepts introduced multiple times, etc). Bottom line, undoubtedly worth reading- just left me wanting more as a work of writing.

This is an amazing (strange) story. An epic account of the survival of four out of some three hundred members of an ill-fated Spanish attempt to explore and settle the underbelly of North America. Resendez appears to have synthesized all the information and evidence available to date regarding Cabeza de Vaca, who normally is accorded only passing mention in Spanish American and Southwestern history, I certainly knew very little about him myself, to produce an absorbing narrative regarding certainly one of the most remarkable stories from the history of the exploration and conquest of the Americas. It is a quick read, but with copious end notes for the really committed researcher.
Strange as the entire account may be, my focus was drawn to two salients. The first is Cabeza de Vaca's evolution during his ten or so years with the Indian tribes of Florida, Southeastern United States, Texas and Northern Mexico, from the then typical Spanish outlook vis a vis the native population seeing them as sub-human, suitable only for conquest and subjugation, to a full realization that they were fully human just like he, and an espousal of their cause, their right to be included as full partners in a new society. Apparently, Cabeza de Vaca even got the opportunity to try his new theories among the Guarani in Paraguay but with no success.
The second was the apparent acquired ability of the four survivors to heal those Indians coming to them believing, even bringing one back from the dead. An amazing account. I have only read one similar and that one goes back 2000 years.
Well worth the investment.

Lots to think about.
Twenty years ago a reference by Gary Snyder led me to Cabeza de Vaca who has intrigued me ever since. Where else would one find such an intimate description of the extent to which Native Americans had become civilized at the point where their lives would be changed catastrophically. Andres Resendez has offered us a new gloss of Cabeza de Vaca's Narrative. His retelling the story is both extremely readable and has abundant footnotes for those of us with more scholarly interest (although the minute font in which the footnotes are written challenges my eyes). The retelling brings up the perennial questions of the extent to which heirs to the civilizations of Europe can really understand the ways of both hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists and how much the people Cabeza de Vaca met had been influenced by the civilizations of Mexico. Both Resendez and Cabeza de Vaca shine best when they present the details of place and material way of life. They falter the most in their understanding of the meanings of that life for the people living it. One would wish Cabeza de Vaca possessed modern anthropological sentiments. Unfortunately his Catholicism and Spanish values may have blinded him to lots that went on around him as he traveled. Or it may be the case that for survival, having been forced to learn languages and customs of his hosts, Cabeza de Vaca understood much more than he conveyed in his Narrative both because of the censorship of the Inquisition and how he wanted to present himself to his own society.
Even modern anthropologists don't tell all. Margaret Mead and Malinowski kept personal details out of their reports and Napoleon Chagnon, who went native, eventually failed an existential test of his subjects. Although Cabeza de Vaca emerges from his travails as defendant of indigenous peoples, he still oozes with a paternalism which could easily have influenced the stories about he and his companions' marvelous healing abilities. His stories are certainly what Spaniards at the time would have liked to believe: that the mercy of Christ abided in four of their Conquistadors and that simple natives would be overwhelmed by its expression. As a healer he had too good a record. Never failing, very unlikely! What are the consequences of failure. Charisma is hard to maintain in intimate circumstances and anthropological literature is speckled with shamans who have been dethroned, had to flee or were killed. Resendez treats Cabeza de Vaca's powers much too uncritically, not only the actual healing but the dynamics that finds the healers being passed from tribe to tribe and being surrounded by mobs. Resendez does question who was in charge, but because we really don't know, we really don't understand how Cabeza de Vaca and his companions negotiated their advance. What is curious here then is why there were groups with them when they met the Conquistadors in northwester Mexico. I don't know and don't find Cabeza de Vaca's explanation convincing. Similarly when it comes to sex, Cabeza de Vaca's Narrative must have been cleaned up. Among the four travelers only the black slave, Estebanico, seems to have partaken, something the Spanish public and the Church would have been comfortable with despite the fact that most Conquistadors were cruel whoremasters not only of native Americans but also their African slaves. Mestizo is not an accidental word as a book I read many years ago entitled, "Machismo and Virginidad," pointed out.
There were others who underwent Cabeza de Vaca-like travails. The only known survivor of the men who Francis Drake abandoned on the coast of Oregon was one Morena or Morera who made it to Spanish
Mexico and was questioned by the Inquisition. And of one hundred English sailors who survived a Spanish attack on their slave boat, three walked it from Florida to New Brunswick. They reported having passed through many kingdoms possessed of royalty, slaves and warriors (see p. 435 fn. 1 of my book cited below). They left no records but one wonders what is in the files of the Inquisition.
So Resendez has offered us an accessible and stimulating version of what has become one of the most famous tales of contact. I appreciate that. The story has deeply influenced me in my own writing.
Charlie Fisher author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

This is a fascinating tale of early European exploration of North America that has been omitted from the US school curriculum. The author, Andres Resendez, is Professor of History at UC Davis; he provides an account that is both scholarly and engaging. The narrative is accessible to the layman with enough concrete detail to make it absorbing and gripping. While the scholarly integrity is evident, the details of references and supporting evidence are provided as end notes so as not to impede the reading of chronicle of these Spaniards-turned-shaman. Resendez strikes a nice balance between offering a narrative in absorbable prose for those wanting to read the text as a story and yet provides ample notes and references for those wanting to engage in further reading or research.

Unlike too many history books by college professors, this book is highly readable and exciting. I was sorry to see it come to an end, and it has sparked my interest in reading related books. And it has many footnotes, so it is easy to find related books! The book was obviously extremely well researched and paints a very balanced picture of native Americans and Spaniard explorers. While basically a story of probably the first Europeans that lived among native Americans, it includes a lengthy build-up as to how they came to do so, as well as information at the end of the book as to what happened after their life among the native Americans ended. It provides exceptional information on the life of native Americans in the southern portion of North America at that time and, for me, gave me several insights into the European advance into America, such as 1) while native Americans remain properly indignant at the violence brought by many Europeans, some native Americans were also unreasonably violent against the Europeans and 2) there were some Europeans who advocated a peaceful co-existence with native Americans. For anyone who has interest in life in America in the early 1500's, this is a wonderful book. The two- or three-page description of what is was like on a ship sailing across the Atlantic at that time is a real eye-opener!

This is a remarkable story about a remarkable 16th-century transcontinental adventure. Resendez is not just a solid narrative historian, but a born story teller. Reading this is like listening to the adventures of Cabeza and his partners around a campfire. Especially valuable is the author's ability to make the many Indian groups full participants in the history, not just part of the background as is so commonly done. This story was once well known, but it has faded. I hope that this book will bring it back, and remind Anglo Americans that Indians and Spaniards were spinning history on this continent long before the first Englishman landed at Jamestown.

A well written, engaging story about a time I hadn't read much about. I have two place markers in the book, one for the narrative and the other for the extensive note section to be read concurrently with the narrative.

Royal Treasurer Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, Captains Alonso Castillo and Andres Dorantes and a black slave named Estebanico were part of a Spanish colonizing expedition that failed in its objective. They shipwrecked in Florida near Tampa Bay in 1528; for the next eight years they survived unbelievable ordeals, while their companions died one by one, of hunger, thirst, disease, at the hands of hostile Indians. They journeyed through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, from where they attempted to take out to sea, only to shipwreck again on the coast of Texas. Having been captured by Indians, they were enslaved and had to endure beatings, humiliations and possibly torture for years, until they managed to become healers and shamans, acquiring fame and respect among various Indian tribes. In 1536 they made contact in Mexico with Spanish slave traders; having been brought back to Mexico City, they returned to civilization. The author has done a good job in recreating these unfortunate Conquistadors' ordeals: what the readers learn early on in the book is that 1500s southern states' landscape was squallid, ungenerous, harsh and unforgiving. The Epilogue, in which the author revelas what happened to our "heroes" after they were found, is very informative and perplexing. Watching the movie (boring indeed!) "Cabeza de Vaca" will help the readers to associate images with the content of the book.
Why a rating of three stars? Not because of the author's inability to tell a story, but simply because of the unglamorous, un-heroic and depressing content of their story.

This book opened up the ancient world of northern Mexico to me. How human life subsists in harsh arid climates is probably a psychological door for me. In living close to this tragedy I have often wondered how people lived in this area before the convenience of the automobile.
Well written and has led to further reading on the subject.

I'm surprised that no reader yet has mentioned Haniel Long's powerful and beautiful version of Cabeza de Vaca's story, which was first published in English in 1936 as "Interlinear to Cabeza de Vaca" and then translated into many other languages and reprinted in various editions with titles such as "The Power Within Us" and "The Marvelous Adventures of Cabeza de Vaca." Each of us will have his own favorite version, but if you haven't read Haniel Long's yet, I recommend it.

Royal Treasurer Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, Captains Alonso Castillo and Andres Dorantes and a black slave named Estebanico were part of a Spanish colonizing expedition that failed in its objective. They shipwrecked in Florida near Tampa Bay in 1528; for the next eight years they survived unbelievable ordeals, while their companions died one by one, of hunger, thirst, disease, at the hands of hostile Indians. They journeyed through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, from where they attempted to take out to sea, only to shipwreck again on the coast of Texas. Having been captured by Indians, they were enslaved and had to endure beatings, humiliations and possibly torture for years, until they managed to become healers and shamans, acquiring fame and respect among various Indian tribes. In 1536 they made contact in Mexico with Spanish slave traders; having been brought back to Mexico City, they returned to civilization. The author has done a good job in recreating these unfortunate Conquistadors' ordeals: what the readers learn early on in the book is that 1500s southern states' landscape was squallid, ungenerous, harsh and unforgiving. The Epilogue, in which the author revelas what happened to our "heroes" after they were found, is very informative and perplexing. Watching the movie (boring indeed!) "Cabeza de Vaca" will help the readers to associate images with the content of the book.
Why a rating of three stars? Not because of the author's inability to tell a story, but simply because of the unglamorous, un-heroic and depressing content of their story.

This book was giving to me and many other students for summer reading, and I can easily say that I have never read a book more boring and blan than this one. If you enjoy reading long and strenuous history books then this is perfect for you. I had to struggle to get though the first four pages, and with that I didn't understand a single word of the text. This book was a complete waste of time. If I could I'd give it 0 stars,but I'm feeling gracious today.