Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across what is now the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish civilization in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La relación y comentarios, which in later editions was retitled Naufragios y comentarios. Cabeza de Vaca is sometimes considered a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of Native Americans that he encountered.
Galveston Island is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about 50 miles (80.5 km) southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston in Galveston County.
Pánfilo de Narváez was a Spanish conquistador and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camagüey escorting Bartolomé de las Casas.
The Narváez expedition was a Spanish journey of exploration and colonization started in 1527 that intended to establish colonial settlements and garrisons in Florida. The expedition was initially led by Pánfilo de Narváez, who died in 1528. Many more people died as the expedition traveled west along the explored Gulf Coast of the present-day United States and into the American Southwest. Only four of the expedition's original members survived, reaching Mexico City in 1536. These survivors were the first known non-Native Americans to see the Mississippi River, and to cross the Gulf of Mexico and Texas.
Estevanico, also known as Esteban de Dorantes or Mustafa Azemmouri, was the first African to explore North America.
Adai is the name of a Native American people of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas with a Southeastern culture. The name Adai is derived from the Caddo word hadai meaning 'brushwood'.
Texas (1985) is a novel by American writer James A. Michener (1907-1997), based on the history of the Lone Star State. Characters include real and fictional characters spanning hundreds of years, such as explorers, Spanish colonists, American immigrants, German Texan settlers, ranchers, oil men, aristocrats, Chicanos, and others, all based on extensive historical research. At 1,076 pages, it was the longest Michener novel published by Random House. Given the success of his previous novels, the company did a first printing of 750,000 copies, 'the largest in the company's history.'
The progenitors of the Baca family of New Mexico were Cristóbal Baca (Vaca) and his wife Ana Ortiz. Cristóbal was a military captain from Mexico City who arrived in 1600 with his family in order to help reinforce the Spanish colonial Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. At the time, they had three grown daughters and a small son. The Bacas had another son while living in Nuevo Mexico. the family then moved to Grants, New Mexico.
Cabeza de Vaca is a 1991 Mexican film about the adventures of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, an early Spanish explorer, as he traversed what later became the Southeast United States. He was one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition and shipwreck. He became known as a shaman among the Native American tribes he encountered, which helped him survive. His journey of a number of years began in 1528. After his return to Spain, he published his journal in 1542. The screenplay by Guillermo Sheridan and Nicolás Echevarría is based on this journal.
Domingo Martínez de Irala was a Spanish Basque conquistador.
James A. Michener's Texas is a 1994 ABC television miniseries directed by Richard Lang and starring Patrick Duffy as Stephen F. Austin, Stacy Keach as Sam Houston, Chelsea Field as Mattie Quimper, Rick Schroder as Otto McNab, Grant Show as William B. Travis, David Keith as James Bowie, John Schneider as Davy Crockett, María Conchita Alonso as Lucia, and Benjamin Bratt as Benito Garza. The film is narrated by Charlton Heston. Aaron Spelling was the executive producer.
Eloísa Gómez-Lucena is a Spanish contemporary writer.
Martín Alhaja was a Spanish shepherd who aided the Castilian King Alfonso VIII during the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 A.D. Alhaja, who knew the area, to herd his sheep had placed a cow skull on the path that led to the field behind the Moors and onto the battlefield. The Spanish Christian King surprised the Moorish army and defeated them. This was the first significant victory for the Christian Spanish during their reconquest of Spain.
Alonso del Castillo Maldonado was an early Spanish explorer in the Americas. He was one of the last four survivors of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, along with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza and his African slave Estevanico. They were the early non-native people to travel and be enslaved in the Southwest region of the modern United States. Castillo Maldonado lived with a Native American tribe in Texas in 1527 and 1528.
Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, was an early Spanish explorer in the Americas. He was one of the four last survivors of the Narváez expedition, along with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes' slave Estevanico, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado.
Chorographia (ko-ro-graph'-i-a)is a rhetorical term used to signify the description of a country. The description can address geographical, sociopolitical, or cultural aspects of a particular land. The scholarly site for rhetorical terms and usage, Silva Rhetoricae, defines chorographia as "...[t]he description of a particular nation".
McGovern Centennial Gardens is a collection of gardens in Hermann Park, in Houston, Texas, United States.
The Old Spanish Trail half dollar is a commemorative coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935. The coin was designed by L. W. Hoffecker, a coin dealer, who also was in charge of its distribution.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer.
