An very readable and exciting true tale of early America

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	• A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca Andrés Reséndez Basic Books, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An very readable and exciting true tale of early America

Unlike too many history books by college professors, this book is highly readable and exciting. I was sorry to see it come to an end, and it has sparked my interest in reading related books. And it has many footnotes, so it is easy to find related books! The book was obviously extremely well researched and paints a very balanced picture of native Americans and Spaniard explorers. While basically a story of probably the first Europeans that lived among native Americans, it includes a lengthy build-up as to how they came to do so, as well as information at the end of the book as to what happened after their life among the native Americans ended. It provides exceptional information on the life of native Americans in the southern portion of North America at that time and, for me, gave me several insights into the European advance into America, such as 1) while native Americans remain properly indignant at the violence brought by many Europeans, some native Americans were also unreasonably violent against the Europeans and 2) there were some Europeans who advocated a peaceful co-existence with native Americans. For anyone who has interest in life in America in the early 1500's, this is a wonderful book. The two- or three-page description of what is was like on a ship sailing across the Atlantic at that time is a real eye-opener!

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A different kind of Conquistador

The primary sources for this epic tale are the official transcript of and report on the testimomy of three of the survivors and Alzar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's 1542 narrative report on his 8 year odyssey from what is now Tampa, Florida to Mexico City.

Andrés Reséndez retells this story in a hugely entertaining and informative way. The book is well written and fast paced. The numerous maps, illustrations, detailed footnotes and extensive bibliograpy are extremely helpful. Many of the footnotes add significantly to the narrative and could have been made part of the text. Reséndez demonstrates an easy mastery of both primary and secondary materials. His expertise enables him to set the original Narvaez expedition in context and to provide valuable background information on all the major players.

Beyond the almost miraculous survival of the Royal Treasurer Cabeza de Vaca, Captains Andres Dorantes and Alonso del Castillo, and the black slave, Estebanico, the central puzzle of this survival saga is how these four sole survivors out of a force of over 300 managed to go from essentially captive slaves to shamans and revered healers. Reséndez provides a reasonable explanation: Castillo's father was a physician from Salamanca, Spain's great university town, and that his exposure to basic medical practices and demeanour probably equipped him with sufficient knowledge to effectively deal with certain illnesses. Castillo's family heritage plus the practical extensions of what these well-travelled soldiers had seen or personally experienced - for example, the extracting of an arrow and the suturing of the wound - helps partially explain their transformation from slaves to successful shamans. Reséndez also persuasively suggests that the Christianity of at least three of the four, their openness to the miraculous plus their ability to maintain a certain humility helped cement their roles as healers.

In explaining how the four survivors became shamans, Reséndez does a much better job than Paul Schneider in his recent retelling of the same story (Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America). (I reviewed Schneider's book two years ago and was struck by the limited way in which he addressed this issue. Schneider's book is still very good - but not nearly as informative as Resendez's.)

Reséndez also sketches out Cabeza de Vaca's almost modern and certainly more truly Christian views of the Indians and how to work with them. He sharply, unemotionally and objectively contrasts Cabeza de Vaca's enlightened views with the brutal, exploitative and counter-productive views of most leading Conquistadors - particularly Guzman and Mendoza - who were more interested in enslaving the indigenous population. Reséndez interestingly notes how Cabeza de Vaca's efforts to implement his more humane views when he became Governor of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) failed due to both the resistance of the Spanish settlers and the Indians. Latin America may have turned out a completely different place, if Cabeza de Vaca's approach to colonization had been adopted.

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Decent history, but it could have been so much better

Cabeza de Vaca gets most of the credit in history, but he actually had three companions who also survived an amazing eight-year ordeal in the New World. They were part of a 600-person expedition that in 1528 sailed from Havana with the objective of landing on the coast of eastern Mexico about 150 miles below the Rio Grande. Due to the power of the Gulf Stream and incredible errors in navigation, they ended up in Florida, near Tampa Bay. Three hundred men set out to explore the interior, were cut off from the ships, and ultimately stranded. Most eventually made it to the Texas Gulf Coast on rafts, but within a short time their number was down to about twenty and a little later only four -- Cabeza and the other three. The four were enslaved by Indians for about six years and then, after achieving an exalted status as trading intermediaries and medicine men, they spent two more years wandering around southern Texas and northern Mexico before re-uniting with Spanish conquistadors (ironically, a group of Spanish on a mission to round up and enslave Native Americans). The four ended up having one of the most unusual and trying experiences in history.

In A LAND SO STRANGE, Andres Resendez tells the above story. I suspect the book is sound history. To judge from the 53 pages of footnotes at the back of the book, it certainly appears that A LAND SO STRANGE is well-, probably exhaustively, researched. If only the writing reflected something close to the same amount of time and effort as was devoted to the research, we might have a classic work of history. But, instead, the material seems to be hurriedly or indifferently organized and presented and the writing itself frequently lapses into the cliched and formulaic, and even sappy. There also are a number of type-setting errors and at least one glaring error in word use. On the plus side, there are about thirty useful illustrations and maps. Three-and-a-half stars rounded down.

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A Land So Strange

This is a fascinating tale of early European exploration of North America that has been omitted from the US school curriculum. The author, Andres Resendez, is Professor of History at UC Davis; he provides an account that is both scholarly and engaging. The narrative is accessible to the layman with enough concrete detail to make it absorbing and gripping. While the scholarly integrity is evident, the details of references and supporting evidence are provided as end notes so as not to impede the reading of chronicle of these Spaniards-turned-shaman. Resendez strikes a nice balance between offering a narrative in absorbable prose for those wanting to read the text as a story and yet provides ample notes and references for those wanting to engage in further reading or research.

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a land so strange

An interesting book but a there was not enough details for me to make it excellent. Of course the details are not known so the author could not include them. If you are particularly interested in this subject you will probably enjoy it more than me.

reviews: page 1, 2

In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the four hundred men who had embarked on the voyage, only four survived-three Spaniards and an African slave. This tiny band endured a horrific march through Florida, a harrowing raft passage across the Louisiana coast, and years of enslavement in the American Southwest. They journeyed for almost ten years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, and they were forever changed by their experience. The men lived with a variety of nomadic Indians and learned several indigenous languages. They saw lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had ever before seen. In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andrés Reséndez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.

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