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Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was born into the Spanish nobility in 1490. Little of his early life is known, except that he made his career in the military. In early 1527 he left Spain as a part of a royal expedition intended to occupy the mainland of North America. It is important to remember that Spain sent several different expeditions in order to colonize the Americas. Cabeza de Vaca was just one. His journeyed accounts happen to be one of the first recorded histories of what our native lands looked like at that time. The journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca remains one of the most amazing feats of exploration in the Americas. He landed near Tampa Bay in 1528 under the leadership of Pánfilo de Narvaez and claimed the new territory. However, a series of adventures and disasters followed him through the whole Gulf Coast. His long struggle in North America was well described in his writings later in life. His works give us a great amount of information about the indigenous people of the region. Some of Cabeza de Vaca’s adventures are directly related to Native American populations in the State of Florida and cities and roads that we use today. |