Supper-Table Stories and Cabeza de Vaca

I have a life-long interest in Cabeza de Vaca, dating back to stories mother told us around the supper table.

My mother, Eugenia Baird Crossley, found time for college when my brother Walter and I finally entered grade school. Mother pursued a Master’s Degree, and eventually wrote a thesis on the route of Cabeza de Vaca through South Texas. In the evenings, sitting at the supper table, she’d tell us what she’d discovered that day. Those people were alive for her, and she brought them to life for us.

Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions were the first Europeans to journey through Texas in the Sixteenth Century. Shipwrecked on Galveston Island, de Vaca and his colleagues were first befriended and then enslaved by Indians. Escaping, they made their way south, through my part of Texas and into Mexico. A miraculous voyage as de Vaca later described it, and a fascinating look at south Texas before the age of Europeans.

As she usually did, Mother made those tales come alive. Those suppers, and Mom’s enthusiastic tales of the castaways and Indians, are a cherished part of my childhood.

Thus, I was delighted to find a modern interpretation of de Vaca’s journey, A Land So Strange, written by Andrés Reséndez of U-Cal Davis (see my Shelfari page). This highly-readable account includes much detail about the origins of the Spanish trip through Texas. As always, I was interested – and puzzled – by the accounts of the Indians who finally befriended these castaways. Their seemingly miraculous cures of diseases endeared the Spaniards to the Indians.

Professor Reséndez offered me two new perspectives. For one, I hadn’t realized that when Cabeza de Vaca wrote his Relación it had to pass muster with the Church before it could be published. This was, in fact, the time of the Spanish Inquisition and de Vaca, like others, walked with caution. His account was filtered with that specter hanging over him.

The other perspective – well, something of a shock. Professor Reséndez says that “lots of ink has been spilled” over Cabeza de Vaca, which it surely has. When I looked at his list of Further Reading, I found that most of that ink has been spilled in the last twenty years!

Scholarship goes on. We plow the ground again, looking for more potshards.

I wish that I could hand this book to my mother.

Dac Crossley
12/12/2011

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.” – Garrison Keillor.

Comments

[Caroline Clemmons]

So glad that you and your cat are both doing well.

[J. R. Lindermuth]

Enjoyed the read. Those old Spaniards brought a lot of grief to the native peoples. But you have to give them credit for their adventurous spirit.
Glad to hear the eyes are doing better.

[Chris Antenen]

Hmmmmmmm - seems you do the cryptoquote, too. Interesting entry, Dac.
Missed you at Harriette's bday party.
Chris

[Mac Jr.]

Hiya Dac-

I first learned of Cabeza de Vaca by reading a book by Tony Horwitz called "A Journey Long and Strange." It's an amazing book, and it describes the adventures of several Spanish explorers. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

Holiday Cheers right back atcha!

[Shirley White]

Wonderful. Supper table discussions and stories are important and long cherished.

[Patricia Gligor]

Dac,
The way your mother made history come alive for you is fantastic.
I was never much of a history buff until high school. My sophomore year, I had a World History teacher who told us stories from the lives of the historical figures associated with the time period we were studying.
That personal connection made all the difference for me. It wasn't just facts and dates anymore; it was about people.

[irene black]

Holidays are hetic, but don't want to leave without a note. People whose grasp of history is so strong it comes alive are rare story tellers of great power.
Irene