SOURCE: “The Negotiation of Fear in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios,” in Representations, Vol. 33, Winter 1991, pp. 163-99.

In the following essay, Adorno traces the evolution of Cabeza de Vaca from slave to shaman and argues that the most important theme of his narrative—namely the peace and resettlement the explorer initiated in lands devastated by earlier sadistic conquistadors—has been largely ignored by critics.

Introduction

When the Gentleman of Elvas begins his account of the expedition of Hernando de Soto to Florida, he tells how a certain hidalgo (nobleman) arrived at court after the concession to de Soto had been granted.¹ This gentleman, “Cabeza de Vaca by name,” had survived the disastrous Pánfilo de Narváez expedition of 1527 to conquer “Florida,” the territory along the Gulf of Mexico coast that reached all the way from the Florida peninsula to the province of Pánuco (near present-day Tampico) in...