- Paperback: 158 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press (Sep 23 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0520070631
- ISBN-13: 978-0520070639
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 14.6 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#903,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics > Latin American
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Even if your collection has one of the earlier translations of this basic southwestern document, you'll want to add this one."--"Books of the Southwest
Product Description
This enthralling story of survival is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-36). The author of Castaways (Naufragios), Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition to claim for Spain a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long westward journey on foot to meet up with Hernán Cortés.
In order to survive, Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples along the way, learning their languages and practices and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots.
In his writing Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected.
Cabeza de Vaca's gripping narrative is a trove of ethnographic information, with descriptions and interpretations of native cultures that make it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. Frances M. López-Morillas's translation beautifully captures the sixteenth-century original. Based as it is on Enrique Pupo-Walker's definitive critical edition, it promises to become the authoritative English translation.
In order to survive, Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples along the way, learning their languages and practices and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots.
In his writing Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected.
Cabeza de Vaca's gripping narrative is a trove of ethnographic information, with descriptions and interpretations of native cultures that make it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. Frances M. López-Morillas's translation beautifully captures the sixteenth-century original. Based as it is on Enrique Pupo-Walker's definitive critical edition, it promises to become the authoritative English translation.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
On the seventeenth of June in the year fifteen hundred and twenty-seven, Governor Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda with authority and orders from Your Majesty to conquer and govern the provinces that lie between the river of Las Palmas and the tip of Florida, which are on the mainland. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
On the seventeenth of June in the year fifteen hundred and twenty-seven, Governor Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda with authority and orders from Your Majesty to conquer and govern the provinces that lie between the river of Las Palmas and the tip of Florida, which are on the mainland. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable source of information about Texas history,
This review is from: Castaways (Paperback)
I read this book for a Spanish literature course as an example of early Spanish writing in America. This story has value in that it provides information on the background of early Spanish exploration, the true motivations and intentions of the explorers (or conquistadors), and their encounters with the native people on the Texas and Florida coasts. It is interesting to read about Texas as a foreign land as seen through the eyes of the author because I grew up there. It was fascinating to realize the adventures and drama that occured so many hundreds of years ago when two cultures collided and no one was positive who would dominate. We know today who did, but at that time, the master (conquistador) did become the slave (of the natives) for seven years. In this way, a valuable account of tribal life and culture is written first-hand, but many years after the events took place. One thing I noticed is that Cabeza de Vaca still maintains a sense of superiority in that he never refers to any of the native people by their names in the book. It may be that he forgot the names over time. Or, he never considered it of importance because the natives were "barbarians" and intellectually inferior in his eyes. I'm also not sure that the author reveals the full truth of his role in the events that took place once he met up with the other conquistadors in Texas after his enslavement. He's a little too much the hero. While Cabeza de Vaca is somewhat sympathetic towards the native people, one feels that Cabeza de Vaca still looks upon the Europeans as explorers and evangelists, while those being explored and evangelized saw the Europeans as conquerors and gold-diggers. But we don't have their account. Other than this, the book is very informative and filled with detailed information on geography and culture. I also purchased the Spanish version and so realized that the English translation is excellent.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely basic to anyone living in Texas and the Southwest,
By Justin Wilkinson (stofkraal@worldnet.att.net) (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Castaways (Paperback)
To read so much live detail about the way of life of the original inhabitants of parts of Texas and the Southwest is to have one's very conceptions about these places changed. It's an amazing, short read and the editor helps with notes in critical places. I think this is basic reading for anyone even part-way interested in the history of Texas and neighboring states. Cabeza de Vaca's account covers hair-raising events which occurred in the 1530s right here on Galveston Island, so it gives a longer sense of post-Columbian history than one usually gets as a lay reader of Texas and Southwest history. I too don't know why more folks aren't talking about this book. I'm buying copies to give away.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tale by de Vaca himself of his trials in America,
By A Customer
This review is from: Castaways (Paperback)
Hard to follow at times, you get confused as to how many people are actually following him! It is sometimes slow reading. Yet, the informantion in the book is good.
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