Spanish Travel Writers

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 18. Chapters: Ali Bey al-Abbasi, Alonso Carrio de la Vandera, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Ana M. Briongos, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Camilo Jose Cela, Fernando Villaamil, Garcia de Silva Figueroa, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Gaziel, Josep Pla, Juan Pablo Villalobos, Martin Ignacio de Loyola, Pedro Cubero, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo. Excerpt: Route of Narvaez expedition (until November 1528 at Galveston Island), and a historical reconstruction of Cabeza de Vaca's later wanderings.Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, c. 1488/1490 - Seville, c. 1557/1558) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the 1527 Narvaez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the Southwest, he became a slave, trader and shaman 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 Relacion ("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 returned to the Western Hemisphere, appointed adelantado of the Rio de la Plata in present-day Argentina, where he was supposed to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires. Unsuccessful, he also came into conflict with the dominant official in the region, Domingo Martinez de Irala, who had him arrested in 1544 for 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 poverty in Seville. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was born around 1490 into a hidalgo family, the son of Nunez...