Rating: 
Summary: The best 500 year old account you'll ever read
Review: Cabeza de Vaca and some of his fellow Spaniards went through some incredible hardships as some of the first Europeans in the New World. They first set out on an ill-advised voyage from Cuba to Florida, where they lost their ships. They built primitive boats which they intended to sail around the coast to Mexico. They went past Mobile Bay, then cut across the Gulf to Texas, where they were captured by the local tribe. Of the 300 Spaniards who left out on the voyage, only 4 survived to tell the tale. De Vaca spent years as a slave to the Indians. He was half-starved (as were his hosts), regularly beaten, and naked. He eventualy linked up with some of his surviving comrades, including a Moorish slave, and they began an epic journey across what is now the Southwest United States and Northern Mexico. He gained a reputation as a medicine man, and soon had an entourage of thousands that travelled with him from village to village. When he finally reached Spanish settlements on the Pacific, the only thing his fellow 'civilized' men were interested in were his followers, which they saw as easy prey for slaves. De Vaca tried in vain to stop the slavers. This was a man who never lost his faith in God or his faith in man. It is simly an incredible journey, and one that does not get enough attention. Though this account is nearly half a millenium old, the translation is easy to read and not at all boring.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent tale from early america
Review: Concurr with earlier review, a great story in which Cabeza De Vaca goes into the 'unknown,' surrounded by thousands of locals of course. Additionally, this book has immense literary value as the first story-type book written about America. In writing his account in a straightforward yet exciting manner, Cabeza De Vaca managed a first in American literature. Anybody interested in the history of our country should pick this book up and hear his tale.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating
Review: Everyone else's reviews are so right on the money. The story reminds us of a century of American exploration that occured before the English had even taken an interest in the New World. And it also gives us an amazingly close glimpse of what life was probably really like among the tribes of Native Americans living along the Gulf Coast. I don't know what to add, except for a comment about the afterward: Cabeza de Vaca could be described as the first American naturalist. Somewhwere between the discovery of the new world, and the twentieth century, people began to travel through the wilderness for the sake of enjoying nature rather than for any practical reason like looking for gold(Humboldt, Muir, Rooseveldt are just a few examples of this sort of "explore for pleasure" mind set). 8 years in the wilds of Florida, Gulf Coast, Texas and Northern mexico were enough to give Cabeza de Vaca a permenant case of new world wanderlust. When the King of Spain awarded Cabeza de Vaca with the governorship of Paraguay years later, Cabeza de Vaca did something strange: en route to Assuncion, he ordered his boats to go ashore in unexplored southern Brazil, 1000 miles from Assuncion, and took a band of men on a voluntary hike through the wilds overland to Assuncion, rather than sailing the boats up the Rio de Plata. Cabeza de Vaca's second book features an account of his voluntary nature hike. A moor survived the US trek with Cabeza de Vaca (appears as a character in the book), but never quite found his place his Spanish society afterword; the moor wandered up into New Mexico to live again among the native americans, and eventually was killed by angry native americans.
Rating: 
Summary: Why isn't Cabeza de Vaca better-known among Christians?
Review: I asked myself that question after I finished re-reading this book recently. Part of the answer may be that it has something to embarass Christians of every stripe.For Catholics, we have a group of laymen doing miracle healings through prayer, and more to the point, they did so even though they had no contact with a priest for 6+ years. For Protestants who believe that signs and wonders ceased with the Apostles, the miracle healings are again an embarassment. For Pentacostals, we have them being done by Catholics, at a time (circa 1530) when Catholicism was probably at its absolute rottenest. And most disturbingly, for those who assure others that God will bail us out materially when we enter into hard times, we have the spectacle of a distinguised nobleman soldier who ends up becoming the naked slave of the poorest Indians on the Texas coast, from whom he escapes only by undertaking a journey on which he is constantly on the verge of dying from cold, starvation, and thirst. As a Protestant missionary, this last aspect is the most instructive. As much as we like to tell people that God will indeed bail them out, we have to remember that we are indeed His creatures, and that His kingdom may well be advanced best by stripping us of all we have and sending us naked into the brush for 6 years to do His work. Personally, I find that reality much more believable than the claim that God wants us all to be materially prosperous. I might also note that those who believe that America was a paradise bbefore the White Man will get a real jolt from Cabeza de Vaca's description of warfare, slavery, and infanticide among Indians. So buy this book--it's almost certain to offend you somehow!
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Summary: Naked faith
Review: I concur with all those who have praised this book, particularly the reviewer who suggested that it offered a great deal to confound many Christians who are hard-headedly (as well as hard-heartedly) devoted to the pet doctrines of their particular faction. But, of course, non-Christians will likely find de Vaca's account even more provocative. This is one of the more politically incorrect but utterly worthwhile books I have ever read. Along with an unforgettable tale of survival, there's faith healing, a resurrection, and even an account of a native tribe that practices homosexual marriage. Perhaps foremost among those who were most astonished by the miracles he wrought was de Vaca himself. But for the fact that he survived to tell it, de Vaca's story is so extraordinary most would find it impossible to believe.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, must-read classic--to Mexico from Florida in 1528
Review: I had never heard of Cabeza De Vaca until I chanced across this book. This is Cabeza De Vaca's story of how he, among two hundred Spanish soldiers, was shipwrecked in Florida in 1528. This harrowing but fascinating story tells about the walk to the nearest Spanish outpost--in Mexico. It takes years, of course, and along the way, Cabeza De Vaca is sometimes treated as a slave and sometimes as a medicine man by the Indians he encounters. When he arrives in Mexico, he is accompanied only by a large troupe of Indians--everyone else is dead. And the Indians with him are immediately enslaved themselves.He spent the rest of his life battling to help the Indians. For further information, see http://www3.pbs.org/weta/thewest/wpages/wpgs610/cabeza.htm.
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Summary: Survival
Review: If you have ever been bitten by a mosquito or wondered what it is like to walk further than the corner store, this book is for you.
It's the story of survival at its best. Marching through swamps,
being made slaves, surviving without food,lets the imagination
wander more for what is left unsaid than told. This is a must read of early exploration in North America.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: This book is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It conveys the full experience the Spanish must have had when entering America.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing true account of an excursion
Review: This is an amazing journal writen to the king of Spain to record the events that took place on his behalf. It has been studied in deepth and found to be unbelievably acurate. Cabeza describes events, in his unique style, from their first sight of land to his return home many years later. He tells about his unfit leader and how he kept himself and many others alive. This part of the book is largely involed around the idea of having faith in God. The most amazing part of his journey comes when he meets with the indians and comes to be thought of as a medicine man. During this time he finds out what happened to many of the people who were his crew and also finds many alive. Over the course of the adventure they make their way from florida all the way into mexico. If you are at all intersted in the history of the first interactions between spaniards and indians, you will love this book.
Rating:
Summary: What an incredible tale!
Review: What an incredible tale of personal survival this historical account is! I read it in view of teaching it to my American Literature students; I wanted to present some of the European accounts of survival that preceded the colonization of New England; I wanted my students to be aware of some of the literature of discovery that is available to them. I found that this short historical report could work in a literature class under such themes as a Quest/Personal Journey tale, or as Discovery epic, or as a report on Native-American societies in the inland of the Continent, or as a solid Adventure story. Cabeza de Vaca survived a 9-year "Outward Bound" challenge. At whatever level or approach that you want to encounter this book, just be sure that you make time for it. Remarkable, it really is.
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