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A review by mnboyer
Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
3.0
de Vaca may not be the best source... since he likes himself a lot...
As a travel narrative, Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America has quite a lot of action, adventure, and dramatic death sequences, all of which clearly fascinated readers upon his return to Spain. It is no doubt notable that only three of the original group survived, traveling over 6,000 miles in an eight-year period (145). The interactions between Cabeza de Vaca and the different Indigenous groups that he encountered along his travels is dynamic, as some treated the Spanish as friends and others viewed them as foes upon first contact. What fascinated me throughout the narrative were examples where Cabeza de Vaca took on the role of ethnographer. At times, he leaned closer to merely recording events—which were likely embellished a bit, but seemed to be believable and realistic at their core. However, there are later examples where Cabeza de Vaca is reflecting upon the customs of Indigenous groups, or is describing “strange” activities of the groups, and in some cases I feel as if the representations he is giving are either (1) factually inaccurate, (2) misinformed, (3) dramatized for readership, or (4) coming from his Christianized views and are enforcing Christian ideas, not any ideas put forth by the Indigenous group he is discussing. It was also very blatant that Cabeza de Vaca was, throughout his narrative, enforcing the concepts of Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery throughout his travels, which is especially notable in his writings on the non-Christian Indian masses he was meeting.
The narrative began as an accounting of details. It seemed that Cabeza de Vaca was writing in terms of “first this happened, then this happened, next this happened,” and this was, for me as a reader, still interesting as he was listing these things. I was mostly interested in how quickly members of the Spanish expedition were perishing. When you think of colonial conquests from the perspective of American Indian studies, one often assumes that the Indigenous populations were the ones being killed or infected with illness that died rapidly quick. However, relatively soon Cabeza de Vaca and his men encounter ship wrecks, are starving, and to Indian bowmen (46). It is notable that Cabeza de Vaca mentions the “power and precision of the Indian archery” because many colonizers assumed that Indigenous populations had no knowledge of warfare. Yet part of my overall concern when it comes to de Vaca reporting information about the Indigenous populations was the language barrier the Spanish encountered. In one instance, de Vaca writes that that Indians “told us by sings that they would return at sunrise and bring food, having none then” (56). I find statements like these problematic because how exactly were communications being directed from both parties involved? In this quoted instance, the Indigenous population does come back with food, so perhaps de Vaca correctly analyzed the ‘conversation’ the parties had. Yet in other instances, de Vaca will mention that there are Indian groups that were hostile, but I must question how he knew they were hostile simply by the way they were acting (Those groups that were not killing the Spanish, but were avoided because of such ‘gestures’—what were the gestures? I feel like de Vaca does not elaborate enough to answer my questions but does draw conclusions without having enough information).
There were areas where Cabeza de Vaca was writing, almost ethnographically, about Indigenous peoples—but in some areas he was inaccurate or portrayed things wrong. This bothers me from my AIS perspective because de Vaca leaves the realm of travel author to try and record things about Indigenous peoples—though this was not what he was trained to do. In one example he discusses marriage traditions of an Indigenous group (62), but this tradition is not unilaterally accepted even within the culture he was discussing. I think this culturally specific information was misinformed, which is problematic because this was reported back to Spain, and this the Spanish crown had incorrect ideas about Native peoples. While I think passages about prickly pear collection and usage are great (70), and correct, the culturally specific details are wrong in certain areas. Or, at other times, are consequently confused by de Vaca. In one instance, Cabeza de Vaca writes, “All the Indians of this region are ignorant of time, either by the sun or moon; nor do they reckon by the month or year” (91). Immediately, I wanted to reflect that is opinion is wrong—while it is true they did not have European calendar months, the Indigenous populations all relied on time to be kept by seasons, flora, fauna, etc. But even de Vaca then goes on to add, “They understand the seasons in terms of the ripening of fruits, the dying of fish, and the position of stars, in which dating they are adept” (91). Perhaps I am less forgiving, but de Vaca says they are unaware of time, then shows that they are! This just seems like he was confused as how time can exist on different levels of understanding.
The language of Manifest Destiny, and even the papal bull known as the Romanus Pontifex, is littered throughout this document. Part of these documents asserted that non-Christian entities could be colonized because they had no claim to the land—and you can see where Cabeza de Vaca continues to list Indigenous peoples are being non-Christians, savages, barbarians, etc. But what I found most infuriating was he writings about promising the Indigenous peoples what Christian colonizers would and would not do. In this passage, de Vaca writes, “…Christians would accept them as brothers and treat them kindly—we would command them to give no offence and take no territory from them but be their true friends” (131). This was never true, as the colonizers were always planning on controlling these new lands. But if Indigenous peoples believed this, they clearly did not hear about the following sentence: “If the Indians chose otherwise, the Christians would treat them hard and carry them away to strange lands as slaves” (131). This seems more like the Spanish colonization period I am familiar with. Indigenous peoples really were only given the choice of assimilate or be slaves/killed. This, unfortunately, was not really a choice.
Cabeza de Vaca produced a good travel narrative in terms of excitement, adventure, narrowly escaping death, finding new Indigenous peoples, and so on. I think it was actually quite a fun read because I was interested to see how many more people could possibly die, get sick, drown when the boats capsize, etc. However, I would caution that any ethnographic information from this narrative be carefully analyzed further before taken as truth (the entire work should probably be taken with a grain of salt, but the Indigenous ethnographic areas are complex challenges).
Note: This review was submitted to the University of Arizona for my ENGL 596F course on Travel Narratives with Dr. Cooper
As a travel narrative, Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America has quite a lot of action, adventure, and dramatic death sequences, all of which clearly fascinated readers upon his return to Spain. It is no doubt notable that only three of the original group survived, traveling over 6,000 miles in an eight-year period (145). The interactions between Cabeza de Vaca and the different Indigenous groups that he encountered along his travels is dynamic, as some treated the Spanish as friends and others viewed them as foes upon first contact. What fascinated me throughout the narrative were examples where Cabeza de Vaca took on the role of ethnographer. At times, he leaned closer to merely recording events—which were likely embellished a bit, but seemed to be believable and realistic at their core. However, there are later examples where Cabeza de Vaca is reflecting upon the customs of Indigenous groups, or is describing “strange” activities of the groups, and in some cases I feel as if the representations he is giving are either (1) factually inaccurate, (2) misinformed, (3) dramatized for readership, or (4) coming from his Christianized views and are enforcing Christian ideas, not any ideas put forth by the Indigenous group he is discussing. It was also very blatant that Cabeza de Vaca was, throughout his narrative, enforcing the concepts of Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery throughout his travels, which is especially notable in his writings on the non-Christian Indian masses he was meeting.
The narrative began as an accounting of details. It seemed that Cabeza de Vaca was writing in terms of “first this happened, then this happened, next this happened,” and this was, for me as a reader, still interesting as he was listing these things. I was mostly interested in how quickly members of the Spanish expedition were perishing. When you think of colonial conquests from the perspective of American Indian studies, one often assumes that the Indigenous populations were the ones being killed or infected with illness that died rapidly quick. However, relatively soon Cabeza de Vaca and his men encounter ship wrecks, are starving, and to Indian bowmen (46). It is notable that Cabeza de Vaca mentions the “power and precision of the Indian archery” because many colonizers assumed that Indigenous populations had no knowledge of warfare. Yet part of my overall concern when it comes to de Vaca reporting information about the Indigenous populations was the language barrier the Spanish encountered. In one instance, de Vaca writes that that Indians “told us by sings that they would return at sunrise and bring food, having none then” (56). I find statements like these problematic because how exactly were communications being directed from both parties involved? In this quoted instance, the Indigenous population does come back with food, so perhaps de Vaca correctly analyzed the ‘conversation’ the parties had. Yet in other instances, de Vaca will mention that there are Indian groups that were hostile, but I must question how he knew they were hostile simply by the way they were acting (Those groups that were not killing the Spanish, but were avoided because of such ‘gestures’—what were the gestures? I feel like de Vaca does not elaborate enough to answer my questions but does draw conclusions without having enough information).
There were areas where Cabeza de Vaca was writing, almost ethnographically, about Indigenous peoples—but in some areas he was inaccurate or portrayed things wrong. This bothers me from my AIS perspective because de Vaca leaves the realm of travel author to try and record things about Indigenous peoples—though this was not what he was trained to do. In one example he discusses marriage traditions of an Indigenous group (62), but this tradition is not unilaterally accepted even within the culture he was discussing. I think this culturally specific information was misinformed, which is problematic because this was reported back to Spain, and this the Spanish crown had incorrect ideas about Native peoples. While I think passages about prickly pear collection and usage are great (70), and correct, the culturally specific details are wrong in certain areas. Or, at other times, are consequently confused by de Vaca. In one instance, Cabeza de Vaca writes, “All the Indians of this region are ignorant of time, either by the sun or moon; nor do they reckon by the month or year” (91). Immediately, I wanted to reflect that is opinion is wrong—while it is true they did not have European calendar months, the Indigenous populations all relied on time to be kept by seasons, flora, fauna, etc. But even de Vaca then goes on to add, “They understand the seasons in terms of the ripening of fruits, the dying of fish, and the position of stars, in which dating they are adept” (91). Perhaps I am less forgiving, but de Vaca says they are unaware of time, then shows that they are! This just seems like he was confused as how time can exist on different levels of understanding.
The language of Manifest Destiny, and even the papal bull known as the Romanus Pontifex, is littered throughout this document. Part of these documents asserted that non-Christian entities could be colonized because they had no claim to the land—and you can see where Cabeza de Vaca continues to list Indigenous peoples are being non-Christians, savages, barbarians, etc. But what I found most infuriating was he writings about promising the Indigenous peoples what Christian colonizers would and would not do. In this passage, de Vaca writes, “…Christians would accept them as brothers and treat them kindly—we would command them to give no offence and take no territory from them but be their true friends” (131). This was never true, as the colonizers were always planning on controlling these new lands. But if Indigenous peoples believed this, they clearly did not hear about the following sentence: “If the Indians chose otherwise, the Christians would treat them hard and carry them away to strange lands as slaves” (131). This seems more like the Spanish colonization period I am familiar with. Indigenous peoples really were only given the choice of assimilate or be slaves/killed. This, unfortunately, was not really a choice.
Cabeza de Vaca produced a good travel narrative in terms of excitement, adventure, narrowly escaping death, finding new Indigenous peoples, and so on. I think it was actually quite a fun read because I was interested to see how many more people could possibly die, get sick, drown when the boats capsize, etc. However, I would caution that any ethnographic information from this narrative be carefully analyzed further before taken as truth (the entire work should probably be taken with a grain of salt, but the Indigenous ethnographic areas are complex challenges).
Note: This review was submitted to the University of Arizona for my ENGL 596F course on Travel Narratives with Dr. Cooper