The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca (Paperback)

by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca (Author), Rolena Adorno (Translator), Patrick Charles Pautz (Translator) "When Thomas Jefferson remarked in a letter to a friend in 1787 that citizens of the new United States should study the Spanish language, he..." (more)
Key Phrases: Río Pánuco, Pánfilo de Narváez, Río Petatlán, Cabeza de Vaca, New Spain, Gulf of Mexico (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This edition of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación offers readers Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz's celebrated translation of Cabeza de Vaca’s account of the 1527 Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to North America. The dramatic narrative tells the story of some of the first Europeans and the first-known African to encounter the North American wilderness and its Native inhabitants. It is a fascinating tale of survival against the highest odds, and it highlights Native Americans and their interactions with the newcomers in a manner seldom seen in writings of the period.

In this English-language edition, reproduced from their award-winning three-volume set, Adorno and Pautz supplement the engrossing account with a general introduction that orients the reader to Cabeza de Vaca’s world. They also provide explanatory notes, which resolve many of the narrative’s most perplexing questions. This highly readable translation fires the imagination and illuminates the enduring appeal of Cabeza de Vaca’s experience for a modern audience.

Rolena Adorno is the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish at Yale University and the author of several books, including Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. Patrick Charles Pautz holds an M.A. in Spanish from Princeton University and is an independent scholar. Adorno and Pautz coauthored Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez (Nebraska 1999), winner of the American Historical Association’s 2001 J. Franklin Jameson Award, the Western Historical Association’s 2000 Dwight L. Smith Award, and the New England Council of Latin American Studies 2000 Best Book Award.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080326416X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803264168
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #191,936 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Fiction, December 17, 2006

By	Some Dude "Some Dude" (Buffalo) - See all my reviews

I bought this after reading a little about Cabeza de Vaca in another book (Richard Grant's American Nomads--check it out). It was worth reading if you have an interest in these kinds of things: whether its history, exploration, and discovery that interest you, or wandering, roughing it, and exciting stories of survival.

I haven't looked at any other versions of this book, so I don't have anything to compare it to. That being said, this version did have a lot of background, in the forms of introductory material as well as footnotes. These were both helpful and cumbersome. A lot of the footnotes were essentially useless for my purpose in reading the book. I just wanted the story-- I didn't really care about the exact locations and time frames, which is what a lot of the footnotes were about. But I'm sure that if you were doing something more scholarly with the book, the footnotes would be invaluable.

One of it's most interesting features to me was Cabeza de Vaca's thinking. By today's standards, he's still a racist, but for his time, he's outrageously sympathetic to the Indians and their ways of life. He tries to see the reasons behind actions that his civilized contemporaries would instantly dismiss as savage.

It's a great story. A Spanish exploration goes bad, and the few survivors fight against the odds and eventually make it out alive after walking across North America. It's a true story that would put the best Hollywood screenwriter to shame. But like a lot of firsthand accounts from that time period, it can be kind of dense. I got used to that, but it did take a little time. On the plus side, the story doesn't really take off until a little ways into the book, so you can use the first part to get used to the writing style.

7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Straight from the horse's moth, January 30, 2007

By	Indigenous wise man "Speak Big Words" (Rock bigger than me in ocean) - See all my reviews

You can take it from the head of the cow: America is a lot different than the Europhile blowhards from the International School say. This epic journey of a quasi- transcontinental romp is not for the faint-hearted or loose-boweled....this is some scary stuff. Few books are a exhilirating as this one. Pitch your tent and start reading!