I found reading the second half of this novel much more interesting. The first half was very centered on the explorers and their tribulations and adventures without a lot of in depth mention of the natives. In this half, the explorers focused much less on themselves, although of course still striving to reach their goals, and tried much harder to assimilate with the native people. Cabeza de Vaca makes mention multiple times about his walking naked and describes staying in the villages with the people and in their homes. He also seems to spread himself out father visiting each of the different groups with their different languages and he gives a list of all of them in chapter 26. He was also visited by many different tribes where he was at or was asked by tribes to come to their village because they needed his healing powers.
It was very interesting to read the stories of when he started healing people. I’m not sure that Cabeza de Vaca realized that the connotations made by his healing people were in direct line with Jesus or if he saw that these connotations were not very religious on his part by taking the role of Jesus. It is interesting to see that while they were performing these healing miracles they were also trying to spread the word of God by explaining that it was God that was behind them when they healed the natives. Then just before they left they began to build churches and crosses. I am not totally on board with missionary work because I feel it forces a religion onto people who do not exactly understand what it is but Cabeza de Vaca did say “no hallamos sacrificios ni idolatría” (p. 213) so it seems like he noticed that the natives were without religion and decided to share his.
The last chapter is very interesting because the explorers arrive back in Europe 10 years after they left and were awarded for doing exactly what they were expected to do. They conquered and governed because it’s doubtful that the natives are going to forget a 10 year presence of Europeans in their communities. Therefore, if the Europeans decided to go back the natives would remember how they looked and how they spoke and the Spanish would be accepted into their communities once again.
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