Who was Cabeza de Vaca?

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (born c. 1490, Extremadura, Castile—died c. 1560, Sevilla, Spain), was the first European to set foot in Texas, albeit accidentally.

In 1527, he was appointed to be treasurer of the famous Narváez expedition that had the goal to explore, find gold and settle on the New World land.

After experiencing successive hurricanes and other disasters, Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked on a low sandy island off the coast of Texas. Starving, dehydrated, and desperate, he is the first European to set foot on the soil of the future Lone Star state, landing on Galveston Island where he and his party of four survivors were eventually enslaved by the local Native American Karankawa tribe. By then, only four out of 600 men in the expedition were alive. Cabeza de Vaca, two other Spaniards and enslaved Morrocan berber named Esteban. Cabeza de Vaca became well-known and revered by the various tribes as a medicine man and healer. This party of four managed to drift from one tribe to another, sometimes as slaves for eight long years as they passed through Texas, Arizona and northeastern Mexico. From there, Cabeza de Vaca made it to Mexico City and sailed to Europe in 1537.

Cabeza de Vaca died around the year of 1558 in Seville. His records from The Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca are today regarded as one of the most important historical recording of early North American colonization.