Cabeza De Vaca Transformation

All the World is Human

At the beginning of Cabeza de Vaca’s epic adventure, he was a conquistador of Spain on a mission of conquest and wealth. As a man of Spain, many career choices would have been available to him, but the choice to be a conquistador was his and one he choice freely. In a twist of fate, Cabeza was shipwrecked, beaten, and forced into slavery the very opposite of his mission as a conquistador, to enslave not be slaved. Cabeza de Vaca made the choice to be a part of a conquest that would seize spoils from a new world, but when kindness and mercy were giving in a time of desperation, a new choice began to grow, a choice to see all men as human and deserving of human rights.

The first in a pair of choices de Vaca would make,

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. The lines which separated men of Europe and men of the New World were blurring for de Vaca. When a time presented itself, Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow compadres escaped and set on foot to reach Mexico City. Traveling across Texas on the Comanche Trail, de Vaca saw many civilized Indian tribes and eventually came across other Spaniards who brought him back into the land and rule of Spain. To his horror, the natives who had traveled with de Vaca were enslaved despite his efforts to help them. He could have stood by while the natives were imprisoned and would have been justified in the eyes of Spain, yet this is not what he did. He made the choice to not standby, but do something for his fellow friends who were imprisoned. The second choice now became

Cabeza de Vaca still shared a mission with Spain, to bring Christianity to the New World, be he no longer would do it as a Conquistador. He returned to Spain not the conqueror he once imagined, full of fame and wealth, but as a man changed by his unfortunate circumstances to see things in a new light. He returned to Spain as somewhat of a celebrity due to surviving a shipwreck and the adventures he had in the New World. He wrote of his travels and shared his new findings to the King of Spain. Later in 1850 the issue, “Do the Indians have Human rights?” would be asked and debated, but de Vaca needed no thought to his answer. He had discovered his answer among the natives already. Cabeza de Vaca isn’t remembered for being a conquistador. He is remembered in history for walking across Texas and seeing the natives in a way different from everyone