Critical Thinking On Alvar Núñez Cabeza De Vaca’s Chronicle Of The Narváez Expedition

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The Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition provides an insight story concerning Spanish exploration and conquest of the present day North America. The story is authored by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca between 1528 and1536. The author was a fortune-seeking nobleman from Spain as well as a treasurer for the expedition tasked with the role of claiming a vast area of the present Southern America states, to his home country.
Cabeza de Vaca provided a detailed account of the nine-year odyssey that Spanish men endured after a ship-wreck forced soldiers to undertake westward journey starting from the present Florida, Louisiana and Texas onwards to California. The author used thirty-eight chapters to bring out scores of natural as well as human obstacles they experienced while crossing the unknown land. The chronicles provide ethnographic information by use of descriptions as well as interpretations of the native culture practiced in the United States of America (Vaca 24). The book also provides information concerning the natural resources available in the Southern America such as Copper and Gold. The explanations set a stage for farther studies of modern anthropology.
The book was the first published chronicle by Europeans concerning the present day United States, and originally published in Spanish in 1542, and revised three years later (Vaca 29). The chronicles enlisted interest among Europeans for both exploring and conquering the United States of America.
Cabeza de Vaca together with other members of his expedition left their country in 1527 under the leadership of Pánfilo de Narváez, expected to be the governor of Florida (Vaca 18). After the damage of their ship by the hurricane, they had to cross the land on foot. However, only Cabeza de Vaca and three other crew members managed to return to their country (Galisteo 95).
The chronicle highlights various challenges that the author went through while exploring foreign land that neither him or any other European had seen before. Among the extreme conditions that the author together with other crew members experienced include thirst, physical pain and soul-crushing hunger. The chronicles reveals Cabeza de Vaca as the first European to have seen bison (Galisteo 89). He also details his experience while living with the Indians, their social customs as well as the existing flora and fauna.
Cabeza de Vaca wrote the chronicles as his private report to the king. His main aim of writing the chronicles was to convince the king to appoint him as the governor of Florida. The position was, however, offered to Hernando de Soto (Galisteo 65). Later, Cabeza de Vaca was named the governor of South America. The revised version of the chronicles helped in increasing the reputation of the author after the failed governorship landed him into jail.
Although the message contained in the chronicle shows negative experiences that the Spanish expedition went through in the foreign land, there is some sense of triumph resulting from perseverance. And the triumph is observed from the expedition’s ability to adapt to the Indian way of life despite having lost almost everything in the foreign land. Cabeza de Vaca had to live naked just as his hosts, Indians (Vaca 32). The native cultures and natural riches recorded in the chronicles forms a stepping stone in motivating Europeans to explore, conquer and claim foreign lands.
In conclusion, it can be observed that the information contained in the chronicle, also, forms a link to various events responsible for shaping the present social, political and economic landscapes being experienced in modern North American. The message and characters enhance the view of various personalities and events learnt in the course.

Works cited

Gómez Galisteo, María del Carmen. "Leaving the New World, Entering History: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, John Smith and the Problems of Describing the New World." (2009).
De Vaca, Alvar Nunez Cabeza. Chronicle of the Narvaez expedition. Penguin, 2002.