Cabeza de Vaca
| Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Cabeza de Vaca
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| Born |
Birth name: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ca. 1488/ 1490/ 1492 Jerez de la Frontera |
| Died | ca. 1557/ 1558/ 1559/ 1560 Seville, Spain |
| Cause of death | By natural causes |
| Resting place | Spain |
| Occupation | Treasurer, Explorer, and Author of "La Relación", Exgovernor of Rio de Plata in Argentina |
| Spouse(s) | María Marmolejo |
| Parent(s) | Francisco de Vera (father), Teresa Cabeza de Vaca y de Zurita (mother) |
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, c. 1488/1490/1492 – Seville, c. 1557/1558/1559/1560) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La Relación ("The Relation", or in more modern terms "The Account"), which in later editions was retitled Naufragios ("Shipwrecks"). Cabeza de Vaca has been considered notable as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of American Indians that he encountered.
In 1540 Cabeza de Vaca was appointed adelantado of what is now Argentine Republic, where he was governor and captain general of New Andalusia. He worked to build up the population of Buenos Aires, where settlement had declined due to the poor administration. Cabeza de Vaca was transported to Spain for trial in 1545. Although his sentence was eventually commuted, he never returned to the Americas. He died in Seville.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was born around 1490 into a hidalgo family, the son of Francisco Núñez de Vera and Teresa Cabeza de Vaca y de Zurita, in the town of Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz, Spain. Despite the family's status as minor nobility, they possessed modest economic resources. In 16th-century documents, his name appears as "Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca".
Álvar Núñez's maternal surname, Cabeza de Vaca (meaning “head of cow”) was said to be associated with a maternal ancestor, Martin Alhaja. He had shown the Spanish king a secret mountain pass, marked by a cow’s skull, enabling the king to win the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa against the Muslim Moors in 1212.
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