en work of Cabeza de Vaca. Volume one offers a translation of Cabeza de Vaca's 1542 Relacion and an exploration of the life of Cabeza de Vaca. Adorno and Pautz explore the history of the Cabeza de Vaca family name and offer a detailed biography of Cabeza de Vaca, including details of his early years in Jerez de Frontera, his appointment to the Narvaez expedition, his time as governor of Rio de la Plata, and his later years of arrest, imprisonment, and ultimate vindication in Spain. Volume two offers an account of the origin and eventual outcome of the Narvaez expedition. A detailed analysis of Cabeza de Vaca's account of the expedition is the bulk of this volume. Volume three traces the textual history of Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion and offers a wide ranging sampling of readers from the Sixteenth through the Eighteenth centuries. The last section of volume three investigates the historical contexts. This is currently the premier scholarly examination of the life, work, and times of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. (Paperback edition of the text and introduction 2003.)
- Adorno, Rolena. "The Negotiation of Fear in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufrigios." Representations 33 (1991): 163-99.
- As is problematic of many true stories, the line between embellishments and lies remains unclear. Adorno comments on the differences between Cabeza de Vaca's story before and after meeting with the emperor, where his previous descriptions of an impoverished country suddenly transform into accounts of wealth and grandeur. The conference with the Spanish nobles and the later publication of Naufragios mark the onset of debates between what is conveyed by Cabeza de Vaca, and what is voiced about Cabeza de Vaca. Deliberations began later that year and continue today. All Adorno wishes for is her own interpretation to be heard by the literary community, using logical reasoning while following Cabeza de Vaca on his journey according to his account and the postulations conceived by critics. The Joint Report, penned by other Spanish survivors of the Narváez expedition, will serve as a basis for disparity. Also crucial towards an accurate interpretation of events is an understanding of how an author's interpretations affect his experiences, or "reading between the lines." Often looked over by historians is the art behind personal accounts – the language used, the emotional reactions embedded inside the words. Adorno argues the loudest of all emotions is fear. Utilizing its frequent occurrence throughout literature concerning the European/Amerindian interaction, she plans on studying Cabeza de Vaca‘s control of his own fear, the fear inspired by his presence, and the negotiation of these fears fluctuating between nightmarish slave hunters and the promise of peaceful resettlement.
- Ahern, Maureen. "The Cross and the Gourd: The Appropriation of Ritual Signs in the Relaciones of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo's Illustrations." Early Images of the Americas. Ed. Robert Lewis and Jerry Williams. T
- Ahern explores the way Europeans and Amerindians in their early contacts interact culturally through the "appropriation of ritual signs" (215). Her focus on Cabeza de Vaca involves an analysis of the symbolic power of the ritual gourd, the calabaza, that is mentioned several times in Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion. Ahern notes that Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow survivors used the calabaza "as a symbol of healing prowess and knowledge" and as a symbolic means of securing safe passage "from tribe to tribe through the Greater Sonoran Desert" (215). The focus of her essay is an examination of the way Cabeza de Vaca appropriated Native symbols and signs as "a bridge for cultural mediation" (216). She traces the passages that relate the healing practices of Cabeza de Vaca among the tribes and suggests that "two referential systems are operating in the text" -- the language of the Christian gospels and native shamans (219). Ahern notes that Cabeza de Vaca writes about the healings in a manner that is suggestive of the healing accounts in the New Testament bu