Biography
Born into a noble family, he was the son of Francisco de Vera2, an explorer born in Gran Canaria. His first expedition to India took place in what has now become the southern United States and northern Mexico: enlisted as treasurer in the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida (1527), he was one of the first of the four survivors, with Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes of Carranza and Estevanico who, during eight years, lived among the Indians while exercising commerce and rebouting. After a long trip west, they reconnected with the Spaniards in Sinaloa (Mexico) in 1536. It was during this trip that he gathered the first ethnographic observations on the indigenous peoples of the Gulf of Mexico. On his return to Spain in 1537, he wrote a report to King Charles V, which was published in 1542 under the title La Relación (The Travel Relationship), later called Naufragios (Naufrages).
Commemorative plaque bearing his name in Iguazu
Eager to resume the colonization effort in Florida, but this time as leader of the expedition, Cabeza de Vaca learns that this post has been awarded to Hernando de Soto, and is entrusted to the government of the Rio de the Plata in South America. In order to perpetuate it, he began in 1540 his second voyage to the new world. He discovered the falls of Iguazú, explored the course of the Paraguay river and subjected some indigenous tribes. He soon came into conflict with the Spanish colonists who, led by Domingo Martínez de Irala (es), rejected the authority of the governor and his plans to organize the colonization of the territory, forgetting to conquer the chimerical treasures told by legends. local. The rebels rise in 1544 (rebellion of the comuneros) and return Cabeza de Vaca in Spain, accused of abuse of power following the repression of the dissidents (like the fire of Asuncion in 1543). He arrived in Seville on September 2, 1545; he is sent to prison in Madrid, then assigned to his home for six years. The Indian Council sent him into exile in Oran after his judgment, rendered on March 18, 15513. He was pardoned eight years later and settled in Seville as a judge.
