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Cabeza De Vaca Thesis

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Cabeza de Vaca

Sure you’ve taken family vacations, you’ve maybe even dared to travel to a different country, but so did Cabeza de Vaca. Only, his travels weren’t exactly like a vacation. Cabeza’s long and treacherous journey across what was soon-to-be-America was more referred to as an expedition. An expedition to conquer and colonize Florida with 600 other men, but the plan later turned sour and it turned into a fight for survival. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s surname was granted the meaning of “Cow Head.” Since we can’t be sure when Cabeza de Vaca was born, it is a safe assumption to form the hypothesis that he was born any time period ranging from 1487-1492. Most think he was born somewhere around 1491. One fact that we know for sure is that he was born in Jerez de Frontera, Spain. Orphaned as an older boy, he later joined the Spaniard military as a young adult. He worked his way up to the positions of Treasurer and First Lieutenant for an expedition to conquer and colonize all the land between Florida and Rio de las Palmas, which in present day is located near Tampico, Mexico. Panfilo de Narvaez was in charge of the expedition. With five ships and about 600 men the expedition left Spain in 1527. The five ships sailed until …show more content…
Another hurricane struck and the rafts were scattered, some being eaten by the ocean and others landing along the shore of Texas. Which is where Cabeza de Vaca ended up with 90 other men. Many of the men got brutally sick, including Cabeza. Cabeza got so sick the other 15 men that were still alive thought he was dead because of his deep slumber. In the spring of 1529 twelve of the fifteen survivors marched down the coast to Mexico. “The two Spaniards who remained on Malhado had refused to join the larger group, because they did not know how to swim and greatly feared crossing inlets and the mouths of streams. “ (tshaonline.com) Cabeza and the men that remained had to find a way to survive, and

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