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A Land So Strange Sparknotes

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In his book, "A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca," Andrés Reséndez tells the story of the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and journey across the American continent in the early 16th century (Reséndez 1). Reséndez provides a detailed account of this journey as they overcome their environment and interact with a variety of native peoples. A land so strange is a memorable and engaging story that portrays cross-cultural interactions and the impact of these interactions on those involved. The story is split into three parts. The first part, "The Journey," describes the Narvaez expedition and its aftermath, including the shipwreck that separated Cabeza de Vaca and his companions from the rest of the crew. The second …show more content…

The locals provide the explorers with resources to launch another expedition to America. While the second expedition proved to fail, the explorers' journey had a large influence on the history of America, and their interactions with the native tribes are still studied and discussed by scholars today. Part of what makes “A Land So Strange” a good story is the way Reséndez illustrates the struggles of Cabeza de Vaca's journey. Cabeza de Vaca and the other explorers are in a constant battle for survival, having to face harsh weather from both ends of the thermometer. They are forced to survive only on what they could find, such as acorns, berries, or even the flesh from their own horses. Out of the many native tribe the explorers encounter on their journey, only some of which were friendly. Reséndez also places Cabeza de Vaca's journey within the larger context of the Spanish conquest of the Americas very well. He shows how the expedition was not just a European conquest over Native American civilizations, but rather a complex knot of alliances, conflicts, and misunderstandings. He also shows how Cabeza de Vaca's experiences challenged many of the assumptions that the Spanish had about the native peoples they encountered, and how his observations would contribute to a better understanding of the native cultures of the …show more content…

One such limitation is its emphasis on Cabeza de Vaca and his companions' perspectives, which can sometimes lead to a narrow and Eurocentric view of interactions between Europeans and indigenous peoples. For example, Reséndez portrays indigenous peoples as passive or primitive, with little agency or complexity. This is clear from his description of the Coahuiltecans, who he describes as "roaming around like animals, seeking food" (Reséndez 136). This type of portrayal risks perpetuating negative stereotypes about indigenous people while also obscuring the complexities of their cultures and their agency in interactions with

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During the journey, they saw many other natives like the ones they met before. The expedition’s chronicler said that San Diego (known as San Miguel for them) was beautiful and had a tremendous marine life. Their houses had a rounded shape and their food came from Acorn and other seeds. Before they left the port, Cabrillo and his people aboard kidnapped about half a dozen of children from the California native tribe with the purpose of trained these children and used them as interpreters on their future journeys. After leaving the Channel Islands, a “great storm” made them go back to the land where they were attacked again by natives, this time Cabrillo got injured.

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Prompt #1: Cabeza de Vaca Capture, sickness, healing, and rituals are the common themes that surround Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s book La Relación. In his short except called “The Healers”, Vaca opens this small section with his escape from Indian captivity and his “healing journey”. After Vaca escapes from the Indians that held him prisoner, he comes across the Avavares Indians, and that is where his story takes off. When Vaca meets the Avavares Indians, he discusses how his fellow traveling companion, Castillo, is asked by the Indians to cure them of a “head ache”. By making the sign of the cross and recommending them to God, the Indians are instantly cured.

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Cabeza de vaca survived because of his respect for the native americans, his success as a healer, and his wilderness skills. The main idea was how did cabeza de vaca survive. I think this DBQ was helpful and informative and now i know what cabeza de vaca did to survive and how he did it. I felt like I was put into cabeza de vaca’s shoes for a long

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108 Words | 1 Pages

Cabeza de Vaca attitude towards the new world was that of suffering and starvation. During his travels, he ate very little, mostly deer-tallow and at one point powdered straw. They did not eat during the day and ate very little at night. Cabeza de Vaca and his men grew very tired and hungry, but could not let the Native Americans see this suffering because they were upholding their authority over them. Cabeza de Vaca’s description of the terrain in some parts differed greatly from that of Columbus in that Columbus stated that the terrain he saw was rich lush lands with warm air and year round green

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818 Words | 4 Pages

However, the Natives had not done anything wrong to make the Spaniards act to cruel towards them. Las Casas wrote in great detail what the Spaniards did. He wrote of the destruction and slaughter that the Spanish brought to the Natives. Las Casas wrote about indians being thrown into pits of stakes. He wrote of children being torn away from their mothers and killed.

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231 Words | 1 Pages

Moreover, in 1537, another Spanish explorer known as Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, wrote a book titled La Relación, where he explained the obstacles him and his crew had to face during the Narvaez expedition in 1527 to the Spanish King, Charles I. In connection to all the men who sailed “from Cuba to Tampa Bay in present-day Florida” only “Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and three other men survived the expedition, but only after enduring a nine-year, six-hundred-mile trek across Texas and Mexico and enslavement by Indians…….” In my opinion, this letter gives the reader a much clearer understanding of the things that Cabeza de Vaca saw during his journey because he writes his letters using words like “my”, “I”, and “me” which makes it clear to us

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504 Words | 3 Pages

Menchaca speaks about how unfairly the and about Onate his journey and how his colony was racially mixed. Also how when he passed through villages he greeted the Indian and told them that they have become vassals. She also goes over the colonist’s rebel and the growth of the Spanish colonies. ” Race and Honor in Colonial New Mexico” is

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Las Casas portrays the indigenous people as a completely innocent and utterly defenseless race of humans in need of European care and proper Christian exposure rather than the eccentric, savage creatures illustrated in other European accounts in an attempt to convince the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to enact reforms regarding colonial treatment of American Indians. Throughout his account, Las Casas focuses on the inherent goodness of the natives, stating that of the many varieties of people in the world, “these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity...holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome” (Las Casas). By describing the natives in this way, Las Casas endeavors

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800 Words | 4 Pages

Cabeza de Vaca became a healer to the Indians and went to various places tending to the sick. From this usefulness, he managed to keep himself alive along with three survivors of his shipwrecked company, who had also made the choice to be part of the conquistador expedition. He lived day to day as a prisoner serving others as masters, a will he thought he’d be imposing as a conquistador. Living on the other side of things gives new perspective and meaning to life and humanity. He had seen the cruelty and kindness of both Indians and Europeans.

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1528 Words | 7 Pages

Cabeza De Vaca set out to accomplish something very similar to what Herodotus accomplished. “Herodotus went well outside these bounds, writing about Egypt, Scythia, Persia, and other countries; he took up the study of customs and moeurs among them, as might a modern anthropologist” (Epstein). They were both documenting a culture and how that culture what similar to other cultures around it. Herodotus probably would have approved of the fact that Cabeza De Vaca lived with the different tribes of Indians that he is presenting in his essay. Because he lived with these tribes he was able to accurately present the ways in which they lived, and he was able to get a better sense of their culture.

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330 Words | 2 Pages

The narrative by De Vaca illustrates how he and his men went on a voyage to find a new continent, while on his voyage they were being beaten heavily by waves therefore got stranded on Galveston island in where Karankawa Indians

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483 Words | 2 Pages

The author’s motivation behind the story is to show the struggle of the voyage to the new land and to show a biased opinion on the Indians. The author is very biased because he is a Spaniard in America and in order to keep people’s opinion of Indians negative so when they invade their land the people don't feel guilty. The author uses very distinct diction that makes you empathetic towards their situation and to make them look like gods to the Indians who make sacrifices to keep them healthy. He uses words like suffered to give the story a darker tone.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

It showed how different the Europeans where from the Natives and how they they all had different opinions on the Natives. Columbus thought the Indians were gullible and lost people who could be persuaded into doing anything, like changing to Christianity. Sepúlveda thought the Indians were down right Barbarians who enjoyed ripping out human hearts and sacrificing them to God. On the other hand, Las Casas saw talent in the Native Americans and saw they weren't a stupid as they seemed. We wouldn't have this information if explorers like Columbus didn't write journey and books of their experience.

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.

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1506 Words | 7 Pages

This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51).

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