In chapter 8 of A Land So Strange, Andres Resendez narrates the journey of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions across vast landscapes, in which Cabeza de Vaca is frequently left in awe. Each sight is a new experience to these men, and such environments are reminiscent of nothing they have seen back home in Spain. Such evidence of Cabeza de Vaca’s interest of what the Americas have to offer is displayed when he gratifies “pine nuts that were better than those of Castile,” describing them as “small pine trees with cones ‘like small eggs,’” (Resendez 188). In this passage, Cabeza de Vaca emphasizes the grandeur of the pine nuts by comparing them to what is presumably Spain’s greatest  pine nuts, noting that they are trumped by what this new land has to offer. Although seemingly minute, this quote exemplifies Cabeza de Vaca’s language as lackluster and impressed in regards to the portions of Mexico he observes. He no longer speaks with an uncomfortable tone, conversely, he admires the beauty of his surroundings, without the bias induced by fear. Moreover, it is clear through Resendez’s speech that Cabeza de Vaca has undergone a distinct change of heart. Besides a determination to exploit untouched resources the region has to offer, Cabeza de Vaca marvels in those that simply stand to be admired, although this admiration is still surpassed by his greed for riches.

Chapter 8 of A Land So Strange deals with the journey in Mexico and their experiences traveling with various indigenous groups. Reséndez highlights the importance of trade in this chapter, something I talked about in my last blog post. Reséndez describes one such trade interaction, saying “Each time the explorers approached the next indigenous settlement on their journey, a curious exchange would ensue. Those who had accompanied the medicine men would pillage the new hosts, entering their huts and plundering whatever possessions or food they could carry back to their own encampment. In return, they left the medicine men.” This was disturbing to the castaways. However to the natives, this was considered an equal trade, as the skill of the castaways was well known and considered to be very impressive. Basically, Reséndez is describing how the natives traded goods for services, a pretty sophisticated economy. Also, the natives would escort Cabeza de Vaca and crew to the next group of natives and pillage them, so they would eventually get goods themselves, and thus the cycle repeated itself.

In the novel “A Land so Strange”, Reséndez tells the story of Cabeza de Vaca and the three other survivors of the Narváez expedition. In following the story of a group of Spanish conquistadors, at times Reséndez seems to justify the actions of the Spanish colonists and conquistadors in the new world. Occasionally, Reséndez appears to sympathize with the natives, but he does this, almost exclusively, in scenarios when he can avoid directly criticizing the Spaniards. Ironically, Reséndez makes one of his biggest concessions about the flaws of the surviving explorers while discussing the miracles that they performed and the fact that they were revered as gods by the natives. After discussing the way that a particular tribe of native peoples revered the travelers, Reséndez states “The healers may have been humane, but they were also sixteenth-century Christians. They believed that the throngs of Indians that showed so much reverence and devotion toward them would be indefinitely better off as Catholics under Spanish rule (203).” Here Reséndez seems to admit that despite the fact that the travelers had learned from their experiences in the new world, they still sought to effectively destroy the native’s way of life. This concession is a big one that is almost refreshing in this novel that often seems to support the negative actions of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions. This quote was also important because it helped connect the reader to the reality of the time period in which the novel takes place.

Within the novel A Land so Strange, Cabeza de Vaca and some 600 other Spaniards are castaways in Florida. As the novel progresses all but 3 Spaniards and one African slave die and find salvation as slaves and soon become sought after as healers throughout the new world to the native Indian people. On their way to discover new land and find maize and other valuable minerals, the 4 healers “were now capable to speak six indigenous languages….. they were of little use in a land where so many tongues were heard.” (Resendez 203). This quote from Resendez shows a couple of things about the 4 healers as they travel along in search or new land and valuable items. One of the things that Resendez is saying is that along their journey throughout the new world, they have been around natives enough to learn and be able to speak their language….. 6 different times. Another thing that he’s saying is that although they have been around enough natives to learn 6 different indigenous languages, those 6 different languages can only get them so far as there are many more languages and obstacles that face them wherever they go. Whether it be new natives and their languages, having to survive with little food and water, or having to brave new lands that they have never seen before alongside people they barely know.

The majority of the novel shows the expedition going anything but well. The travelers experience all kinds of obstacles that result in their starvation, dehydration and even their enslavement by Native Americans in the New World. It is apparent throughout the first half of the journey, that the travelers were unprepared for the hurdles that they had to face, making it easy for the reader to believe that Narváez’s expedition was inept in their endeavors. However, in Chapter 8, Reséndez writes that:

The castaways continued to burnish their reputation as healers. Cabeza de Vaca in particular became more confident in his skills. He became bolder in his inventions; he was no longer content merely to pray and blow. The medical procedure he employed may go some way toward explaining his success. ( Reséndez 189)

Reséndez completely changes the argument to argue that though the men seemed unfit to explore the New World at the beginning. They ultimately were able to adapt to the ways of life in the Americas. It is important to understand this new development in the text so that the audience understands that Reséndez believes that the journey the men went on was not easy, but they are ultimately capable of learning the ways of the land.

According to Cabeza de Vaca “Four naked unarmed outsiders were led by hundreds, even thousands, of Indians. They were fed and protected and passed off from one indigenous group to the next, as if they were prized possessions moving along an ancient trading route across the continent (Resendez 188).” Cabeza de Vaca’s point in this paragraph is that not all Native Americans were savages as they were and have been portrayed. It shows that even though Cabeza de Vaca and his crew were these Natives captives they still treated his group with respect.

According to the Mexican historian Andrés Reséndez, the four travelers “felt greatly disturbed and saddened that other Christians had already reached these remote lands and were causing so much harm to the natives”(204). Reséndez’s point is that throughout their travels, the four outsiders developed a new perspective on the Native Americans, and though they still felt that the natives would be better off as Christians under Spanish rule, they did not wish to bring harm to the natives. Having lived among the natives in the New World for several years, the four survivors were able to gain a new appreciation for the natives and their culture. They decided they wanted to convert these natives in a humane way. Looking deeper into Reséndez’s words, it is clear that he is arguing that their experiences changed the three Spaniards and the African.

Continuing the reading of  “a land so strange”, the author, Resédenz, this time presents us the story of those four survivors vastly changed status as they set themselves as the medicine men. Reading through the whole chapter, it’s all full of how the Indian people treated them as higher authority and became their company for the exploration. The Indian people gave whatever they need: “shelter, food, and gifts to the four men in exchange for access o their healing power”. (Reséndez,190). In addition, they would set foot into the tribe’s enemy territory for the sake of those four noble men. In making this comment, the writer urged us to believe that those Indians didn’t enslave those Europeans. Not only because they hadn’t had the ideology of slavery, but also because of their kind-hearted and honest personalities. If the Indians took them as the slave, those four survivors wouldn’t gain such status. The definition of “slavery” is that slaves ought to perform whatever the slavers told them to do and they were unable to disengage in such order. Clearly, the four survivors are thought to be the “son of the god” by the Indians, which directly contradict to the ideas that the europeans were being enslaved that mentioned in the previous chapter. Thus, In my opinion, the natives were very kind and friendly to the castaways before the European conquistadors reached the New World.

Not only the Natives treated them like “son of the god”, the four “medicine men” also rewarded the Indian people and gained benefits mutually.  According to Reséndez, once those four noble men received the presents from one tribe, they would give the rest to their followers.(193) The essence of the argument is that those four castaways are also grateful for the efforts those Indians spared and the kindness that Indians presented to the four. In addition, as the writer puts it, “other christians has already reached these remote lands and were casing so much harm to the natives”. Basically, Reséndez is implying that those four castaways developed the friendship with the natives and decided to help those Indians when they heard the Indians are brutally killed by the European conquistadors. This is a sign of the rationality overcoming the sensibility. It is true that the four castaways were indeed up in the air, however, instead of galloping to the Conquistadors, they took the Indians interest before the their sense of belonging to the Europeans. Additionally,  from my perspective of view, the impulse of helping the Indians is due to their belief in God. The God’s will is rooted inside every angle of their life. Everything is under the supervision of the God. The four deserted people knew that it is a God’s will to testify if they could stand the test.  It is their decision to choose whether they should lounge to the side of the Europeans or staying and helping by the Indian side. At last, they chose the later one.