Myth and History in Cabeza de Vaca

As a failed conquistador, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca had to construct a different metaphor for his experience, choosing hagiography as a way to frame the value of his experience. In his prologue to La Relacion, he asks that the narrative be “received in the name of service, because this alone is what a man who came away naked could carry out with him” (142). Conquest and service are two parallel narratives in the biblical tradition, allowing Cabeza de Vaca to turn to books other than Genesis for his metaphorical and mythological structure.

For instance, he alludes to the book of Numbers in his description of the Native Americans he encounters in Florida. In Numbers 13, Moses is instructed by God to send explorers into the land of Canaan, which has been promised by God to Israel. It is a prelude to conquest, as Caleb “still[s] the people before Moses, and sa[ys], Let us go up at once, and possess it [the land]; for we are well able to overcome it” (13:30). Others are not certain of victory, however, and they give “an evil report of the land which they had searched…saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up the inhabitants…and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants…and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (13:32-33). Cabeza de Vaca’s description of natives is remarkably similar: “The Indians we had so far seen in Florida are all archers. They go naked, are large of body, and appear at a distance like giants. They are of admirable proportions, very spare and of great activity and strength. The bows they use are as thick as the arm, of eleven or twelve palms in length, which they will discharge at two hundred paces with so great precision that they miss nothing” (143). Not only does he invoke the biblical image of giants dwarfing the would-be conquerors, who have come to a new land with a sense of entitlement, he also adds hyperbole in his description of the proficiency of the archers, who may have been excellent marksmen, but could hardly have been expected to miss nothing.

The purpose of such passages is more subversive than the mythological purpose of Columbus’s diary. Cabeza de Vaca still positions himself as a conquistador, whatever might be said of his ostensible transformation throughout La Relacion, because his central metaphors come from Jewish stories of conquest. In this fashion, he anticipates the typology of the Puritans, who sought to create a literal New Jerusalem. Yet the imperial purpose of La Relacion is not as evident as in Columbus’s journal, because C de V’s emphasis is on his weakness and the helplessness of his band in the face of overwhelming strength. He appeals to God for help in navigation, for miraculous healing of the sick, for direction in the wilderness when he is lost, and in these regards he seems to be constructing a narrative with more humility than Columbus’s record of his voyages. However, the reality that he plans to use these anecdotes to gain favor for himself with the Spanish crown and to add knowledge to the Spanish arsenal, thus reinforcing the purpose of conquest, suggests that the spiritual themes of La Relacion are, in fact, selfish motives masquerading as piety.

Later passages, such as his claim to have discovered a spontaneously burning tree while lost in the desert, allude to Moses’s discovery of the burning bush, out of which God speaks of the promised land, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). C de V’s bleeding feet and singed hair evoke images of the mutilated Christ en route to his crucifixion, intensifying the martyr metaphors and reinforcing the messianic themes in order to mute the imperialism of his purpose.

The burning tree follows C de V’s ostensibly miraculous healing of sick natives, both of which illuminate the most audacious aspect of the narrative, which is a subtle bid for beatification as a saint. Among other requirements, such as a five-year period following the death of the confessor and the nomination of the same, is evidence of at least one miracle attested to by an eyewitness. C de V cleverly covers these bases with his caveats about faith healing, which were not only observed by natives, according to his narrative, but also by Castillo and others among his countrymen.

If he couldn’t be a conquistador, this brilliant mythologist paved the way for his own canonization as a saint.