Stavans, Ilan :

Ilan Stavans is the author of the memoir On Borrowed Words. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize.


Augenbraum, Harold :

Harold Augenbraum is director of the Mercantile Library of New York and its Center for World Literature. His most recent book is U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide.

This riveting true story is the first major narrative detailing the exploration of North America by Spanish conquistadors (1528-1536). The author, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking Spanish nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition sent to claim for Spain a vast area of today's southern United States. In simple, straightforward prose, Cabeza de Vaca chronicles the nine-year odyssey endured by the men after a shipwreck forced them to make a westward journey on foot from present-day Florida through Louisiana and Texas into California. In thirty-eight brief chapters, Cabeza de Vaca describes the scores of natural and human obstacles they encountered as they made their way across an unknown land. Cabeza de Vaca's gripping account offers a trove of ethnographic information, including descriptions and interpretations of native cultures, making it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology.

Introduction
Suggested Further Reading
Chronology
Illustrations: Facsimile of the Title Page of the 1542 Edition; The Route of Cabeza de Vaca
A Note on the Text
Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
Prologue

Chapter One: When the Fleet Left Spain and the Men Who Went with It
Chapter Two: How the Governor Came to Xagua and Brought a Pilot with Him
Chapter Three: How We Arrived in Florida
Chapter Four: How We Went to the Interior
Chapter Five: How the Governor Left the Ships
Chapter Six: How We Got to Apalache
Chapter Seven: The Lay of the Land
Chapter Eight: How We Left Aute
Chapter Nine: How We Left the Bay of Horses
Chapter Ten: On the Skirmish We Had with the Indians
Chapter Eleven: What Happened to Lope de Oviedo with Some Indians
Chapter Twelve: How the Indians Brought Us Food
Chapter Thirteen: How We Learned About Other Christians
Chapter Fourteen: How Four Christians Departed
Chapter Fifteen: What Happened to Us on the Isle of Misfortune
Chapter Sixteen: How the Christians Left the Island
Chapter Seventeen: How the Indians Arrived with Andrés Dorantes and Castillo and Estavanico
Chapter Eighteen: Esquiviel's Account, Related by Figueroa
Chapter Nineteen: How the Indians Separated Us
Chapter Twenty: How We Fled
Chapter Twenty-One: How We Cured Several Sick People
Chapter Twenty-Two: How the Following Day They Brought Other Sick People
Chapter Twenty-Three: How We Departed After Eating the Dogs
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Customs of the Indians of That Land
Chapter Twenty-Five: How Ready the Indians Are with Weapons
Chapter Twenty-Six: On Nations and Languages
Chapter Twenty-Seven: How We Moved and Were Received
Chapter Twenty-Eight: On Another New Custom
Chapter Twenty-Nine: How They Steal from One Another
Chapter Thirty: How the Manner of Reception Changed
Chapter Thirty-One: How We Followed the Corn Trail
Chapter Thirty-Two: How They Gave Us Hearts of Deer
Chapter Thirty-Three: How We Saw Traces of Christians
Chapter Thirty-Four: How I Sent for the Christians
Chapter Thirty-Five: How Well the Chief Magistrate Received Us on the Night of Our Arrival
Chapter Thirty-Six: How We Had Churches Built in That Land
Chapter Thirty-Seven: What Occurred When I Wished to Return
Chapter Thirty-Eight: What Happened to the Others Who Went to the Indies

Colophon
Notes