HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Núñez…
Loading...

Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Núñez Cageza de Vaca (original 1542; edition 1993)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,0201920,059 (3.76)22
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 Nez 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 Hernn Corts. 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. Lpez-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.… (more)
Member:ciridan
Title:Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Núñez Cageza de Vaca
Authors:
Info:University of California Press (1993), Paperback, 158 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:history

Work Information

Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Author) (1542)

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 22 mentions

English (12)  Catalan (3)  Spanish (3)  French (1)  All languages (19)
Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
Expecting a tale of a voyage and mainland travels, the horrors detailed by Cabeza de Vaca were a shock.

From near starvation and slavery through bizarre customs to betrayal by "Christians," to becoming faith healers,
this was captivating despite a ton of repletion.

Given Cabeza's stance here against Spanish slavery, it was bewildering to read that he was
eventually sent home in dishonor from South America for allegedly mistreating native people. ( )
  m.belljackson | Sep 7, 2023 |
8475301800
  archivomorero | May 21, 2023 |
Cuatro estrellas por las notas del editor Juan Francisco Maura que señalan la hipocresía de Cabeza de Vaca, 2.5 por el libro. ( )
  setmeravelles | Jul 31, 2020 |
There are three things that really struck me about this book.

First, it reads very much like Marco Polo does, simple sentences, slightly formulaic, and little description beyond “the people of this country go naked and have a strange custom”. This is partly because Cabeza de Vaca can’t write Spanish for anything and had to be simplified, and partly because he’s writing a manual and a map, of sorts, for the King of Spain.

Second, it really was one darn thing after another for him, at least how he tells it. First there’s a shipwreck, then they put in at the wrong spot, then they run out of food and have to eat the horses, and then they have to build a boat but don’t know how, and then their new boats get wrecked….

Third, for all that Cabeza de Vaca goes on about the uncivilized peoples he encounters, with their inexplicable customs and tendency to enslave him*, he also talks about how they’re willing to take him in and give him food when they have little, and how the Spanish should work with and accommodate their cultures rather than slaughtering them. (He also seems to be under the impression they thought he was a god most of the time, however.)

I’m still not sure what I think of the book. It’s curious, and an interesting if incomplete look at the American Southwest in the 16th century, but is it good? Would I recommend it? I guess if you’re interested, go for it. It’s a short read.

*It’s hard to tell from the text whether this is true slavery, most of the time, or just “well, you’re here and if we’re going to feed you, you need to contribute.” All the historical background I’ve read says slavery, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers were casually racist too.

6/10 ( )
  NinjaMuse | Jul 26, 2020 |
A fascinating read. This version is a translation of Cabeza de Vaca's account, but also lets us know where his account differs from the joint account by the few survivors of the journey. It also recounts some of the details unearthed by Carl Sauer and Cleve Hallenbeck in the 1930s which confirm many of the details in the journal.

The details of how little they ate and still survived amaze me. Not to mention the fact that the tribes would eat mostly one food while it was in season, then move on to the next. I wish the book had included a map to follow his trail. The insights of a person who lived among the various tribes not as a conqueror, but as a slave give perspective. He managed to better his situation by learning the languages of several tribes so that he could act as a go-between and do trading back and forth. In that way he was able to gain a little, and he was on the path most of the time alone, so avoided the beatings which were common. He described many of the customs of the people, which seem bizarre to our materialistic culture, such as that when a tribe brought a healer among their neighbors, they would go and pilfer everything they wanted from the homes, then when the pilfered people took the healer to the next tribe, they would do the same. Since the tribes didn't live in one place long, but constantly moved to find the next food source, I don't imagine there was much to pilfer.

In the end, the four survivors became healers. Not by choice, but because the tribes they were among at the time decided that they were. So, praying for the people, and blowing on them, then making the sign of the cross, they would pray for healing with all their hearts, because if the people were not healed, they would put the healers to death! The people were healed, many times and miraculously, so that these four became a legend. Rather than take advantage of that though, they seem to have grown compassion for the natives. I believe that their own faith was strengthened and refined, or at least Cabeza de Vaca's was. They did use their power to make the tribes take them to the "Christians" further on (down in Mexico), but they made sure that each tribe had food distributed evenly, and that they did not leave one person without a blessing. When they arrived to the place where the "Christians" were, they found that the land was deserted, the natives had fled in terror because they didn't want to be enslaved. Cabeza de Vaca and the others went to the Governor at that place and protested about the treatment and misunderstandings. In this one place, that changed the way the natives were treated. At least until these four men went home to Spain.

In spite of our present feeling about the results of this period of history, I believe it is important to read this sort of first person material to gain perspective. In reading it, it becomes clear how the jumble of history can happen one person at a time through misunderstandings, differing personalities and distant uncomprehending governments with their own agendas. ( )
  MrsLee | Jul 15, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (30 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de VacaAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñezmain authorall editionsconfirmed
Fernández, José B.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ferrando, RobertoEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Geers, G.J.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
On the twenty-seventh day of the month of June 1527 Governor Panfilo de Navaez departed from the port of San Lucar de Barramed, with power and mandate from Your Majesty to conquer and govern the provinces that extend from the River of the Palms to the Cape of Florida, which lie on the mainland.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

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 Nez 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 Hernn Corts. 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. Lpez-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.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.76)
0.5
1
1.5
2 8
2.5 4
3 23
3.5 5
4 33
4.5 5
5 21

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,185,974 books! | Top bar: Always visible