Texas, the Southwestern United States, and northern Mexico. Hallenbeck devotes the last part of his book to offering the opinions about the transcontinental route of Cabeza de Vaca by a variety of scholars including Adolphe Bandelier, Hubert Howe Bancroft, J.N. Baskett, Benjamin Read, R.E. Twitchell, and Davenport and Wells. Hallenbeck concludes that the discrepancies in Cabeza de Vaca's account of his travels are "the result of confused recollections and not of intentional misrepresentation" (28).
- Hickerson, Nancy P. "Rituals of Confrontation: Cabeza de Vaca and the Texas Indians." Intertexts 1.2 (1997): 169-76.
- Hickerson discusses the erroneous interpretation that the Spanish people were welcomed into the Native world as Gods and showered with gifts as a superior people. Rather, it was common practice to shower all travelers with gifts as a sign of hospitality, respect, and hope that the favor would be exchanged later. Cabeza de Vaca's state as a healing Shaman, not his Spanish heritage, would also command great respect. Hickerson warns against perceiving Cabeza de Vaca as a "conqueror," pointing out several instances in which he successfully assimilates to such a degree that the Natives viewed him and his comrades as "their" Spaniards -- Spaniards not associated with the Christian conquerors.
- Howard, David A. Conquistador in Chains: Cabeza de Vaca and the Indians of the Americas. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1997.
- Howard's book focuses on Cabeza de Vaca's treatment of Native Americans during his period of wandering the American Southwest and his term as governor of Rio de la Plata. Howard suggests in his preface that Cabeza de Vaca's notions of justice and liberty towards the native were "entirely Spanish," and, despite good intentions, he was "an imperialist who imagined that the policies of the government of Spain might be achieved in America by just and humane means under Spanish law" (xi). Howard, however, does set Cabeza de Vaca's policies apart from the generally cruel, tyrannical, and brutal actions of most of the Spanish conquistadors towards the natives of the Americas. Cabeza de Vaca's attitudes towards the natives, according to Howard, is a result of his eight-year sojourn among the natives from 1528-1536 after the failure of the Narvaez expedition and his reaction to the abuses by other conquistadors attempting to subjugate natives according to Spanish law. Howard offers his analysis of Cabeza de Vaca's policies on primary sources relating to the Narvaez expedition and the colonization of Rio de la Plata.
- Lee, Kun Jong. "Pauline Typology in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios." Early American Literature 34 (1999): 241-62.
- Lee explores the religious iconography implemented throughout Cabeza de Vaca's account of his eight-year estrangement from European society. The original report, dubbed the "Joint Report," was written by the four survivors of the Narváez expedition and later enhanced by Cabeza de Vaca based upon his own spiritual journey titled Naufragios. Although the authority in the matter, Oviedo, in charge of discerning what occurred in the past eight years, preferred the Joint Report, he also added his own brand of mystical upon his retelling. Both recollections, Lee notes, are soaked in Biblical allegory and medieval legend. The study of popular literature from the 16th century may prove to be very relevant if critics of Cabeza de Vaca wish to dissect his symbolizations, according to Lee, especially Pauline typology. He quotes Peter Wild as the first to recognize Cabeza de Vaca likening himself not only to Jesus (a common criticism), but to Saint Paul as well. Both Cabeza de Vaca and Paul underwent very intense religious conversions or, more specifically, integrations during journeys through foreign lands. Lee takes this idea deep into the heart of Mexico, where a "born-again" Cabeza de Vaca will come to be, in his own mind, the first apostle of the New World. Lee hopes to contrast the Pauline corpus with the Naufragios in order to prove the former's influence over the latter.
- McGann, Thomas. 