Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1490–1556)
Speaking among themselves, they said that the Christians were lying, because we had come from the East and they had come from the West; that we healed the sick and they killed the healthy; . . . that we coveted nothing but instead gave away everything that was given to us and kept none of it, while the sole purpose of the others was to steal everything they found, never giving anything to anybody. (Relación)
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would more than demonstrate his worthiness of the distinguished family name. At the age of 21, Cabeza de Vaca joined the military and was sent to Italy, where he fought in the Battle of Ravenna the following year on April 11, 1512. His bravery on the battlefield of a confl ict that resulted in French withdrawal from Italy was rewarded with his promotion to lieutenant (alférez) in the city of Gaeta (12). His military service continued the following year (1513) in the city of Seville. While serving as aide to the duke of Medina-Sidonia, Cabeza de Vaca was instrumental in defeating the Comunero Revolt against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (who, as Charles I, was King of Spain) (12). What biographers know next in the military man’s life occurs seven years after his involvement in overthrowing the Comunero Revolt. On February 15, 1527, he received the appointment of king’s treasurer by Charles V and was assigned to Pánfi lo de Narráez’s expedition (12). What followed was a nine-year ordeal in present-day Florida, Texas, and northern Mexico (Sinaloa) in which the conquistadors diminished in numbers because of a hurricane, rough seas, desertion, and warfare with the native population. Cabeza de Vaca documented the events of the failed expedition, together with his seven-year captivity, in his Relación, which also bears the title Naufragios (shipwrecks). Contemporary critics regard Cabeza de Vaca as one of the earliest proto-Chicano writers in North
orn in 1490 in Jerez de la Frontera, an Andalusian town, to Francisco de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar was the family’s fourth son (The Account 11). Both parents had ancestors who had distinguished themselves by their participation in colonial or Reconquest events. His paternal grandfather, Pedro de Vera Mendoza, was involved in the conquest of the Canary Islands, while a relative on his maternal side had received the honor of grand master of the Order of Santiago for his part in the Reconquest, a 600-year-old confl ict with the Moors for control over the Iberian Peninsula (11–12). Cabeza de Vaca’s surname originates from an ancestor on his mother’s side who was granted the unusual honorific for loyal service rendered to the Spanish Crown during the Reconquest. Martín Alhaja provided King Sancho of Navarre with a secret passage up to the Sierra Morena, which he marked with a cow’s skull. By using this unguarded trail, King Sancho and his soldiers were able to summit the mountain without detection and gain a necessary advantage over their enemies, the Moors (12). In fact, the battle, known as Las Navas de Tolosa, was “the most decisive battle in the Reconquest.” In acknowledgment of his loyal service, Martín Alhaja and his descendants received the noble title Cabeza de Vaca, which translates literally as “cow’s head.” The fame associated with the appellation was ample reason for his parents to bestow such a weighty surname on him. His deeds
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