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Cabeza de Vaca was one
of the first Spaniards

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to travel through South Texas
and on over through Mexico

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back to the Spanish
civilization.

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It was all a mistake.

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He was shipwrecked, of course.

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But he had a rather
rough time of it.

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I believe he spent seven
or eight years wandering

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in the wilderness.

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He's always been a fascinating
figure in history to me.

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"Cabeza de Vaca" means
the head of a cow.

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And it's another story,
really, but that name

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was handed down to him.

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And it is-- this
idea of the head

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of a cow is used in the poem.

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And I often wondered
the strange sight

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of this Spaniard wandering
through complete wilderness,

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and the Indians had never
seen a white man before.

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"What could they do at
the sight of the man,

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thrashing, lunging through
thickets, the head of a cow,

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and bleeding from every pore,
but fall back astounded,

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sharpen their arrows?

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From the reeds, they watched
him stop, clutch at his throat,

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stare into the sun, and groan.

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Birds pulled his hair, the
rivers had no directions.

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Some took him in to ease the
gods, sat amazed at his stupor.

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Others peppered the
beast with arrows.

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But for him, truly
beside himself,

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alone, there was no difference,
but to pull himself from thorn

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to thorn, following
the maid that

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lured him, golden
shoed and blouse open,

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from horizon to horizon.

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And at last, every
night as the Earth

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rose black with its
calls to devour him,

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to lie back ready to be
eaten, to bathe his tongue,

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and slip into the mud."

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