ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Spanish colonization from the very different perspectives of a Spanish castaway and New Mexican Indians. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was second-in-command on the disastrous 1528 Panfilo de Narvdez expedition to Florida and the Gulf Coast. Cabeza de Vaca survived, however, and lived for eight years among the Indian peoples of the Texas coast and the Southwest. After tracing Cabeza de Vaca's adaptation to life among the Indians of the region, the reading moves to the 15341536 journey of Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors of the Narvdez expedition Andrs Dorantes, Alfonso de Castillo, and Esteban from Texas to northwestern Mexico. After the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, Spanish officials questioned New Mexican Indians in an effort to understand what had happened. The testimony of three Indians, Don Pedro Nanboa, Juan, and Josephe, follows declaration of one of the rebellious Christian Indians who was captured on the road.
