s consciousness. Pastor concludes, however, that Cabeza de Vaca's narrative ultimately reveals "another facet of the imperial mask" (146).
- Pastor-Bodmer, Beatrice. The Armature of Conquest: Spanish Accounts of the Discovery of America. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1992.
- Pastor-Bodmer analyzes Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion as a literary expression of "the process of critical demythification" that she perceives as evident in earlier documents about the failure of expeditions (4). Cabeza de Vaca's narrative does not portray the lands of the Americas in mythical terms but as a hostile, wild, wilderness that at times appears uninhabitable. Pastor-Bodmer suggests that Cabeza de Vaca's portrayal of America is presented in ways that "unequivocally contradict the mythical representations initiated by Columbus" (131). The overall sense that Cabeza de Vaca communicates in his narrative is a type of destruction of the mythical conquest model. The author notes that Cabeza de Vaca expresses a "new identity" in his narrative that "goes hand in hand with a radical change in his view of reality" (142). Pastor-Bodmer suggests that Cabeza de Vaca's narrative is an expression of a "spiritual journey" that "leads to the humanization of the conquistador and the critical demythification of the conquest" (150).
- Pilkington, William T. "Epilogue." Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of North America. Trans. Cyclone Covey. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1984.
- Pilkington's epilogue to Cyclone Covey's 1984 translation of Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion focuses on the literary and cultural significance of Cabeza de Vaca's narrative. Pilkington suggests that these two perspectives are more significant than the historical element to the narrative. Pilkington calls the narrative of Cabeza de Vaca a "peculiarly American document" that portrays a distinctly American theme -- "the physical and emotional struggle for an accommodation between races" (146). He also suggests that another distinctive theme that Relacion explores is the notion of the solitary individual on a "voyage of exploration, of physical and spiritual discovery" in an isolated wilderness setting (149). Pilkington advances the notion that Cabeza de Vaca "became the first American" to offer a narrative with these distinctly American literary features (150). Comparing Cabeza de Vaca with other Spanish conquistadors, Pilkington says that "Cabeza de Vaca's conquest lay in the realm of the spirit rather than that of territory and treasure" (145).
- Rabasa, Jose. "Allegory and Ethnography in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufrigios and Comentarios." Violence, Resistance, and Survival in the Americas. Ed.William Taylor and Franklin Pease.Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990. 40-66.
- Rabasa's contention is that Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion allows for readings from an allegorical as well as ethnographical perspective. Cabeza de Vaca not only records specific place names and geographical features of the land through which he travels but also "invests them with symbols and characters significant within the narrative of evangelization and conquest" (49-50). Rabasa notes that Cabeza de Vaca's account appears to offer a benevolent representation of his attitude towards natives but actually reproduces symbolically "the colonial myths that structure and articulate the same violence he condemns" (43). Rabasa believes that Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion reinforces the notion that native peoples are subordinate to the rule of Spain and supports the idea that native knowledge and superstition is devil-inspired. Rabasa concludes by suggesting that Cabeza de Vaca's story portrays the "paradoxical coexistence of an imperial and empathetic perspective" and should be analyzed allegorically as well as ethnographically (63).
- Reff, Daniel T. "Text and Context: Cures, Miracles, and Fear in the Relacion of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca." Journal of the Southwest 38 (1996): 115-38.
- Reff notes that Cabeza de Vaca stands apart from his contemporaries because of the way Cabeza de Vaca "overcame to a remarkable degree the c