Writing in the Wake of Exploration: Documents from the Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Expedition to the Pantanal, 1540-1555

FAIN: RQ-50197-06

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5200)
Catherine J. Julien (Project Director: November 2005 to April 2008)

Preparation of an edition of the documents, Commentaries, and Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of the Paraguay River. (24 months)

An edition is planned of documents written during and just after the expedition of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca up the Paraguay River to the Pantanal (1543-44), the immense wetland region at the heart of the South American continent. Cabeza de Vaca wrote a narrative account of this expedition--the Commentaries--which he saw into print in 1555. What is not widely known is that a large corpus of materials written by participants during the course of exploration and just after has survived in archives. A selection of these documents--including the Commentaries--will be transcribed and translated for publication. The project has been accepted for publication by the University of Nebraska Press.