Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

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Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (* around 1490 in Jerez de la Frontera ( Andalusia ), † around 1557 in Seville ) was a Spanish navigator and explorer . He was the son of Francisco Núñez de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca y de Zurita, a rather modest Hidalgo family.

Surname

His ancestor Martin Alhaja showed the king of Navarre a strategically important mountain pass in 1212 , which was marked with a cow's head ( Spanish : Cabeza de Vaca ). This pass played a key role in winning the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa against the Moors .

Life

Campaigns in Italy

From the age of 20, Cabeza de Vaca took part in the Spanish campaigns in Italy .

Crossing North America

The map shows the route of the Narváez expedition. From the island of Galveston , Cabeza de Vaca , Alonso del Castillo , Andres Dorantes and Estevanico crossed the south of the North American continent in the years 1528–1536 - at times accompanied by Indians - on foot.

In 1527 he participated as treasurer in an expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez . The aim was to explore the coastal strip between Florida ("La Florida") and the Rio Grande ("Palm River"). The expedition left Spain with six ships and a total of 500 men. However, the first ship was lost in a hurricane during the crossing . During a stopover on the island of Hispaniola, 140 men deserted.

Florida

On April 12, 1528 the expedition landed on the west coast of Florida. Here Narváez decided to split up his already weakened force. During a briefing, Cabeza de Vaca tried to prevent the commander from undertaking a land expedition. He showed him how badly the troops were equipped. Each man had only two pounds of ship's biscuit ( yuca bread ) and half a pound of bacon for food. The 40 horses were hardly usable in the swampy terrain. In addition, the animals were very weak from the long crossing. In addition, the ships' navigators did not know exactly where they were currently. The force had no port and no inhabited place to use as a base. Nevertheless, Narváez decided against the advice of his deputy and ordered the expedition ashore. The five remaining ships were to sail along the coast and meet again with him and his men at a later date. So Narváez penetrated with about 300 men into the wetlands of Florida. From captured Indians he heard of a splendid city of the Apalachee and decided to march further northwest. The Spaniards arrived on June 24th. However, there they found only 40 low, thatched huts. There was no gold or other riches here. Since the Spaniards had hardly any supplies left, they took whatever food they found from the Indians and marched back to the southwest. They wanted to meet their fleet again on the coast. On the way, however, they were violently attacked by the Indians who had robbed them. Many Spaniards died from the arrows of the Indians. Cabeza de Vaca reported the enormous penetration power of the Indian arches . Even the iron armor did not help the men. Some Spaniards were captured by the Indians - one of these prisoners was Juan Ortiz .

When de Narváez reached the coast near the village of Aute , he found that there was no ship in sight. The skippers had sailed up and down the coast for a long time, looking in vain for their comrades. Finally, they had given up and were to Veracruz ( Mexico sailed); the constant attacks by the Indians had cost the lives of many men and horses. Demoralized, Narváez had boats built with which he wanted to flee Florida and reach the coast of Mexico. Five roughly timbered vehicles with flat sides were built.

Shipwreck in Texas

On September 22, 1528 the troops set out to sea. A total of 242 men sat close together in their five small boats. They had little food; they kept the little drinking water in the skins of the horse's legs. For weeks they drove west along the coast. Again and again they met belligerent Indians and had to defend themselves. Many men died of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. In the Mississippi Estuary, storms and currents separated the boats. On November 6, 1528, Cabeza de Vaca's boat was washed up on the beach on the "Island of Bad Fate" (now Galveston Island ) in what is now Texas . Your boat was no longer seaworthy; an attempt at repair failed. Nevertheless one tried to sail on with the battered vehicle. The attempt, however, already failed in the surf: The boat capsized and three men lost their lives. Again the Spaniards stranded on the island and couldn't get any further.

Here on the island they met the also stranded crew of the second boat, among whom were Alonso del Castillo and Andrés Dorantes . The Indian inhabitants of the island provided them with food. Even so, the men were very afraid that these Indians would kill them and sacrifice to their gods. But the Indians treated them well - they fed them and tended their wounds.

Pánfilo de Narváez, the leader of the expedition, had landed nearby in the third boat. There he met the crew of the fourth boat. While his men went ashore, he stayed on board. During the night a storm came up that drove the boat out to sea, unnoticed by everyone else. Since then, one has never heard from de Narváez again.

The crew of the fifth boat, which ran aground some distance from the island, was killed by other Indians.

Many of the surviving men died of disease. They were weakened and food was scarce. The Indians could not look after so many men during the winter. After a short time only 15 of 80 men were still alive. Hunger even drove some Spaniards to eat their starved comrades. The diseases of the white men spread to the Indians, and many of them died. The friendly mood of the Indians changed: the remaining white men were divided up as slaves and had to work for the Indians. Some of them have now been mistreated and even killed by the Indians.

Life as a trader

Cabeza de Vaca was given to a medicine man who forced him to cure the sick. He was also treated very badly and became terminally ill. After his recovery, he fled to another tribe. For years he led the life of a trader there. He traveled from people to people in weeks of hiking. His goods were animal skins, ocher paint made of clay and earth, the shells of sea ​​snails and mussels . The Indians used the shells as jewelry and for cutting. He also traded in pearls and a bean-like tree fruit. The Indians used this fruit as medicine and brewed ritual drinks from it.

While Cabeza struggled as a trader, he met Alonso del Castillo, Andres Dorantes and the Moors Estevanico again. In order not to lose sight of his friends again, Cabeza de Vaca took on the lot of slavery again and stayed with them. He voluntarily left his unattached life as a trader behind him in order to save not only himself but his friends as well.

Escape

Cabeza de Vaca now planned the escape with his comrades. It almost failed because the Indians separated the Spaniards from one another and gave them to different masters. At the time when the prickly pear fruits were ripening, they met again and agreed to escape. They wanted to make their way to New Spain ( Mexico ) as healers .

During their journey they endured incredible suffering, hunger and thirst. They were unable to be picky about food. So they not only ate the fruits of the prickly pear , but also spiders and ant eggs , worms , lizards , snakes and even deer dung .

Since they actually managed to cure some people on their journey, they were soon accompanied by Indians. They venerated them as holy men. They encountered many different tribes, languages ​​and ways of life. They heard legends of "wild cows" which should live in great numbers on the plains. Finally they got to see the bison too. Cabeza de Vaca writes in his book:

bison

“All over this country there are a lot of deer, poultry and other animals that I mentioned earlier. Here they also hunt cows. I've seen her three times and ate her meat. They seem to me about the size of the cows that live in Spain. Their horns, like those of Moorish cattle, are small. The hair is like fine wool and like sheep's clothing, very long. Some are brownish and some are black and for my taste they have better and more meat than the ones here. The Indians make fine blankets out of the skins to warm themselves with. They also make shoes and other things out of them. These cows come from the north. From the Florida coast, they can be found anywhere in the country, up to a distance of more than four hundred iguanas. People everywhere live on the meat of these cows. Further inland they are said to occur much more frequently. "

- Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

This made Cabeza de Vaca the first European to describe the American bison .

The reputation of being something special preceded Cabeza and his companions. The small group accompanied about 4,000 people. As nomads, their companions had little. They made their living by hunting and gathering plants and roots. They either didn't dress at all, or they wore skins or leather.

With the Pueblo Indians

In the land of the Pueblo Indians they encountered the first permanent houses. Here the Indians grew corn , beans and pumpkins . After years of hardship and hardship, Cabeza and his companions found this area to be very wealthy. People dressed in woven fabrics and traded. Their merchandise was woven cotton blankets , jewelry made from coral of the Pacific, feather jewelry and turquoise .

Arrival in New Spain

Near the sea, on the Gulf of California , they finally met other Spaniards in the spring of 1536 after eight years and about nine thousand kilometers. It was slave hunters who caught Indians to sell to the country's silver mines. Cabeza and his friends did not allow their Indian companions to be enslaved. They sent the Indians back to their homeland and made their way to Culiacan in New Galicia. This part of New Spain was ruled by Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán . Cabeza de Vaca found that the country was almost completely depopulated. Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and his subordinates had captured, enslaved, and sold most of the Indians.

From Culiacán, Cabeza de Vaca and his companions moved via Compostela to Mexico City to tell Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza about their trip. They arrived there on July 24, 1536 and were celebrated like heroes.

Return to Spain

Cabeza de Vaca only arrived in Spain on August 9, 1537. There he wrote a report about his voyage, which later received the Spanish title Naufragio de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (German: The shipwrecks of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ).

Commemorative plaque for the discovery of the Iguaçu waterfalls

Río de la Plata

In 1540 he was appointed governor of the Spanish colony on the Río de la Plata and in what is now Paraguay . Here he was the first European to discover the Iguaçu waterfalls . However, in a coup d'état in 1544, he was overthrown and sent back to Spain.

Last years

After his return he took part in the fighting for Oran (1545). He spent the last years of his life as a poor man in Seville , where he died in 1557 or 1558.

meaning

The travelogue Naufragio published in Spain , which has the overall character of an odyssey , contains many observations and names from the early days of Europeans in America. He himself wanted his report to be understood as a factual report over a period of nine years, which he roamed "abandoned and miserable through distant lands".

Cabeza de Vacas descriptions were passed on falsified in rumors. For example, the little lucky charm turquoise that the Pueblo Indians had in the door frames of their houses turned into huge treasures in exaggerated narration, and their villages became the “seven golden cities of Cibola ”. Such legends sparked the Marcos de Niza expedition and later the Coronado campaign .

Movie

literature

  • Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez: The shipwrecks of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca . Report on the disaster of the Narváez expedition to the south coast of North America 1527–1536. Stuttgart 1925.
  • Long, Haniel: The shipwrecks of the Cabeza de Vaca: Report on the migration and life of the Spanish nobleman Cabeza de Vaca among the Indians of the New World in the years 1528 to 1536. Tanner & Staehlin, Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-85931-045 -3 . (A novella from 1936 "The strength in us" in the form of a fictitious second letter from Cabeza de Vaca to the Spanish king - Cabeza de Vaca is stylized in an almost violent way as a pioneer of the New Age, the ecological movement and anti-racism .) Also published by Hermann Rinn, Munich, 1950; coupled with "Malinche" (also by Haniel Long.)
  • Rolena Adorno & Patrick Charles Pautz (eds.): Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca . His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE 1999, ISBN 0-8032-1454-5 (3 vols.).
  • Maura, Juan Francisco: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: el gran burlador de América . Parnaseo / Lemir. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 2008. Digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fparnaseo.uv.es%2Flemir%2FTextos%2FMaura.pdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D
  • Nancy Parrott Hickerson: How Cabeza de Vaca lived with, worked among, and finally left the Indians of Texas. In: Journal of Anthropological Research. Albuquerque, vol. 54 (1998). ISSN  0091-7710

Web links

Commons : Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecks . Page number is missing, edition, publisher etc. are missing.
  2. ↑ Bernal Díaz del Castillo The True Story of the Conquest of Mexico p. 722
  3. ^ South America Travel: Iguazu Falls at about.com
personal data
SURNAME Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish navigator and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerez de la Frontera ( Andalusia )
DATE OF DEATH around 1557
Place of death Seville