A Land So Strange The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Audible Audio Edition) Andres Resendez Jonathan Davis Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : A Land So Strange The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Audible Audio Edition) Andres Resendez Jonathan Davis Audible Studios Books
In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival.
Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived - three Spaniards and an African slave. This tiny band endured a horrific march through Florida, a harrowing raft passage across the Louisiana coast, and years of enslavement in the American Southwest. They journeyed for almost 10 years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, and they were forever changed by their experience. The men lived with a variety of nomadic Indians and learned several indigenous languages. They saw lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had ever seen before.
In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andres Resndez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.
A Land So Strange The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Audible Audio Edition) Andres Resendez Jonathan Davis Audible Studios Books
This book is Resendez’ gloss on what is, in my opinion, the most amazing survival story I know of, and I’ve read a lot of them! It’s not just amazing because three shipwrecked Spaniards and a Moorish slave (Estevan) managed to make it from the Florida panhandle to the Gulf coast of Texas to the Pacific Coast of Mexico in a staggering eight year odyssey, but because of the unique way they did it, and the consequences for the Americas and the Spanish Empire.Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions were the only survivors of the disastrous Narvaez expedition, which left Spain with 5 ships, 600 men and a license to conquer Florida in 1527 and ended up castaway on the barrier islands of South Texas in 1528. They did not see another "Christian" (European) until they ran into the advance guard of the brutal Nuno de Guzman's conquering army near the Pacific coast of Mexico, in Sinaloa, in 1536. In the interim, they went from being guests, then slaves of Indian tribes on the Texas coast, to faith healers and famous “Children of the Sun”. It was a mutually beneficial, but rather bizarre, ritualistic exchange, of their services for goods, apparently orchestrated by their Indian hosts, that really what got them across the continent safe and sound. It went like this: after performing their healings in a village, its inhabitants would take them to the next village along their route where their hosts would trade them for everything owned by its occupants. They would heal the sick of this village, who would then take them on to the next one and repeat the process…so that the miraculous strangers flowed northwest and goods flowed back to the southeast and everybody left happy.
The repercussions of the four castaways miraculous re-appearance were almost immediate. They recounted their tale to Viceroy Mendoza in Mexico City, including reports they had gotten from their Indian hosts of multi-storied dwellings with abundant crops and, possibly, metals and gems, located to the north of their route. This second-hand story, compounded with the Aztec’s tale of a homeland called Aztlan, somewhere to the north or northwest of Mexico, accelerated Spain’s push in that direction. Mendoza commissioned Fray Marcos de Niza to follow up on their tale, and gave him Estevan as his guide. Estevan and Fray Marcos' “discovery” of Cibola/Zuni, where Estevan was killed in 1539, and Marcos’ wildly exaggerated description of the same, led almost immediately to the Vazquez de Coronado expedition of 1540, of which Mendoza was a heavy financial backer. All of this is quite ironic, given that the only “wealth” they actually saw with their own eyes on their journey consisted of a copper bell, 3 arrowheads made of “emerald” (more likely malachite) and some beads described variously as of silver, coral or pearls! Quite a transfiguration from these meager things into the magnificent “Seven Cities of Cibola”!
Cabeza de Vaca began arguing for decent treatment of the Indians immediately upon being reunited with his countrymen in Sinaloa and continued to do so for the rest of his career. Conflicts with fellow colonists over just this issue ultimately landed him back in Spain in chains after a brief stint as governor of what is now Paraguay. I think he ranks up with Bernardo de las Casas as one of the most enlightened and humane Spaniards of the epoch.
Resendez adds some interesting commentary on Cabeza de Vaca’s chronicle, giving updated anthropological, ethnological and route information, plus background on the castaways, historical context and so forth, but by far the most powerful part of the book are the words of Cabeza de Vaca himself. If fact, the latter's "Naufragos" should really be read along with Resendez’ book to get the full impact of this remarkable journey.
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A Land So Strange The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (Audible Audio Edition) Andres Resendez Jonathan Davis Audible Studios Books Reviews
I had never read much about how Cabeza de Vaca happened to be in Florida. This books gives a great deal of background. There were so many plots, counter-plots, intrigues, backstabbing, and skullduggery going on. In school we learned about how he wandered around the South. History buffs learned about how he crossed Mexico. It wasn't until I lived in Brazil that I learned that the shipwreck and years of hobbling from one tribe to another from Florida to Mexico was only the first of his two great adventures; the second was his life in what is now Santa Catarina, Brazil, and the region to the West. A Land So Strange? A Story So Well Told.
Cabeza de Vaca's journey is different from other accounts of his time because he didn't conquer and abuse the native americans. Instead he learned their languages and customs while living with them first as a guest, then as a slave, merchant and lastly as a "major pimp" during his 10 years in North America.
Besides giving us a truly unique idea of how life was in North America in the 1500's (and shattering some of our Hollywood "noble savage" myths) Cabeza de Vaca's story is one of perseverance and survival against all odds.
As much as I found his historical account fascinating I found the part about survival and not giving up inspiring for my personal life.
After reading the original in medieval Spanish and understanding about 50% of it (due to different expressions and words that we don't use in modern Spanish, such as "traveling 2 bowshots," picking "tunas" off trees, and crossing "ancones."), Andre Resendez's book brought it all into historical context, and coherence.
He did a wonderful job, this is a book that you cannot put down once you start it, SPECIALLY explaining the historical context of the expedition. Plus, it's a story that "no one" knows about, unlike Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro etc
Possibly it could have used a few more maps, or perhaps a tab to reference back and forth while reading.
We are so fortunate that Cabeza de Vaca lived to write about his epic adventure in discovering the entire Gulf coast from Florida to Mexico and the Pacific, about the Spanish conquest of the New World, the first encounters of Native Americans and the tale of survival in a land so strange that was the early 16th century New World which had belonged to countless numbers of indigenous peoples who had been here for tens of thousands of years and who were suddenly exposed to an "alien invasion" from Western Europe made up of conquistadors and ordinary people in search of riches and a better life for themselves and their families. Thank you, Cabeza, for sharing your epic story and for treating the native peoples with respect, honor and compassion!
This is an extremely interesting and well-written book. I was already familiar with Cabeza de Vaca's extraordinary travel story, having read before at least part of his own report, written for King Charles V (not an easy read, because of the XVI Century Spanish) but Reséndez, besides making the history crystal clear, has fleshed it out with a lot of context, which makes it even more interesting and instructive. Some of the other characters, many of them quite interesting and extraordinarily daring people (including some incredible villains), are described even down to their physical appearance, character, and opinions contemporaries had of them. I learned a lot. If you read it as an adventure novel you could say the plot is incredible, but truth is stranger than fiction in this case. I tried to read this fascinating book slowly -difficult to do- because I did not want it to end. Highly recommended!
This book is Resendez’ gloss on what is, in my opinion, the most amazing survival story I know of, and I’ve read a lot of them! It’s not just amazing because three shipwrecked Spaniards and a Moorish slave (Estevan) managed to make it from the Florida panhandle to the Gulf coast of Texas to the Pacific Coast of Mexico in a staggering eight year odyssey, but because of the unique way they did it, and the consequences for the Americas and the Spanish Empire.
Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions were the only survivors of the disastrous Narvaez expedition, which left Spain with 5 ships, 600 men and a license to conquer Florida in 1527 and ended up castaway on the barrier islands of South Texas in 1528. They did not see another "Christian" (European) until they ran into the advance guard of the brutal Nuno de Guzman's conquering army near the Pacific coast of Mexico, in Sinaloa, in 1536. In the interim, they went from being guests, then slaves of Indian tribes on the Texas coast, to faith healers and famous “Children of the Sun”. It was a mutually beneficial, but rather bizarre, ritualistic exchange, of their services for goods, apparently orchestrated by their Indian hosts, that really what got them across the continent safe and sound. It went like this after performing their healings in a village, its inhabitants would take them to the next village along their route where their hosts would trade them for everything owned by its occupants. They would heal the sick of this village, who would then take them on to the next one and repeat the process…so that the miraculous strangers flowed northwest and goods flowed back to the southeast and everybody left happy.
The repercussions of the four castaways miraculous re-appearance were almost immediate. They recounted their tale to Viceroy Mendoza in Mexico City, including reports they had gotten from their Indian hosts of multi-storied dwellings with abundant crops and, possibly, metals and gems, located to the north of their route. This second-hand story, compounded with the Aztec’s tale of a homeland called Aztlan, somewhere to the north or northwest of Mexico, accelerated Spain’s push in that direction. Mendoza commissioned Fray Marcos de Niza to follow up on their tale, and gave him Estevan as his guide. Estevan and Fray Marcos' “discovery” of Cibola/Zuni, where Estevan was killed in 1539, and Marcos’ wildly exaggerated description of the same, led almost immediately to the Vazquez de Coronado expedition of 1540, of which Mendoza was a heavy financial backer. All of this is quite ironic, given that the only “wealth” they actually saw with their own eyes on their journey consisted of a copper bell, 3 arrowheads made of “emerald” (more likely malachite) and some beads described variously as of silver, coral or pearls! Quite a transfiguration from these meager things into the magnificent “Seven Cities of Cibola”!
Cabeza de Vaca began arguing for decent treatment of the Indians immediately upon being reunited with his countrymen in Sinaloa and continued to do so for the rest of his career. Conflicts with fellow colonists over just this issue ultimately landed him back in Spain in chains after a brief stint as governor of what is now Paraguay. I think he ranks up with Bernardo de las Casas as one of the most enlightened and humane Spaniards of the epoch.
Resendez adds some interesting commentary on Cabeza de Vaca’s chronicle, giving updated anthropological, ethnological and route information, plus background on the castaways, historical context and so forth, but by far the most powerful part of the book are the words of Cabeza de Vaca himself. If fact, the latter's "Naufragos" should really be read along with Resendez’ book to get the full impact of this remarkable journey.
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