Estevanico el Moro

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Estevanico el Moro

• North African
• Muslim
• Explorer

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Biographical bits

• Estévanico is also known as Estevan, Esteban,
  Estebanico, Black Stephen, and Stephen the Moor.
  He was born circa 1503 in the Islamic town of
  Azemmour, Morocco. In 1513, the Portuguese took
  control of this area. When they fell on hard
  times during a drought in the early 1520s, the
  Portuguese started selling Moroccans as slaves to
  European customers. Estévanico was sold to a
  Spaniard named Andrés de Dorantes and accompanied
  him to the New World and to new adventures.
  www.lasculturas.com

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Did he resemble this depiction?
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NEW PERSPECTIVES

• From the cultural perspective of which he was a
  part, Stephen the Moor becomes Estevanico el Moro
  or Estevan de Dorantes or Mustafa Zemmouri
• From the trans-Atlantic cross-cultural
  perspective, a minor figure in American Southwest
  history and an anonymous character in North
  African history textbooks acquires prominence as
  Explorer of New Spain

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BENEFITS of OTHER PERSPECTIVES

• Cross cultural exchange and cross fertilization
• Academic value across the curriculum
• More accurate and fuller historical picture
• Understanding of diverse cultural frames of
  reference
• Facilitation of academic achievement of ALL
  students

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Cabeza de Vacas Route
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Even the route seen in previous slide has been
disputedother educated guesses below.
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WHAT MATTERS

• What matters is what we know about the journey
  itself and what Cabeza de Vaca and his companions
  saw. What matters is what Cabeza de Vaca
  recorded in terms of cultural and linguistic
  aspects of early life in Texas.
• Do the following photos accurately depict what
  they might have seen as they crossed Texas?

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Who were these people that they lived amongst in
Texas?
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Did they come across this????(Answer on next
slide)
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No, they did not.

• Longhorns were not native to Texas or the
  Southwest. They were introduced by later Spanish
  exploratory parties.

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Historical, Anthropologic and Literary Importance
of Cabeza deVacas Narrativehttp//www.english
.swt.edu/CSS/BackgroundCDV.HTMLHSIG
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Brief Overview

• HISTORICAL
• The Account describes his struggle to survive as
  foreigner, captive, slave, and faith-healer among
  the native inhabitants of what is now the
  southwest U. S. (http//www.english.swt.edu/CSS/Ba
  ckgroundCDV.HTMLHSIG)

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Anthropologic

• Cabeza de Vaca's reports on numerous tribal
  bandsthe Karankawas, Caddoes, Jumanos and
  Conchos, and the loose bands of hunter-gatherers
  now called Coahuiltecans.
• Cabeza de Vacas memoirs contributed to our
  understanding of native peoples. It is the first
  anthropological record about many of the archaic
  bands found in Texas.
• (http//www.english.swt.edu/CSS/BackgroundCDV.
  HTMLHSIG)

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Literary

• Its drama and novelistic structure give it
  suspense. (The Account Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
  Vacas Relacion by Favata and Fernandez)
• "Cabeza de Vaca was not only a physical
  trailblazer he was also a literary pioneer
• Cabeza de Vaca¹s story serves as the first
  captivity narrative, becoming the most
  significant early American narrative and the
  basis for the Western from Cooper to Eastwood..
  (http//www.english.swt.edu/CSS/BackgroundCDV.HTM
  LHSIG)

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The Controversy behind the Text

• Not everyone is convinced by Cabeza de Vaca's
  self-reported conversion or the story's impact.
  SWT historian Jesus de la Teja, questions the
  authenticity of Cabeza de Vaca's story,
  suggesting that the real sub-text to his written
  work is his desire to save his reputation after a
  major failure and that his purpose was to
  convince the King that he was worthy of receiving
  another appointment.

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Controversial views continued

• In this view, Cabeza de Vaca's opposition to
  enslaving the Indians revealed simply his support
  for the anti-slavery position Spain endorsed at
  the time. Others question the value that literary
  scholars place on the captivity narrative. Still
  others, such as anthropologist Thomas Hester
  question the continuing use of suggested routes
  now long discredited by archaeological evidence.

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SOLILOQUY OF ESTEVANICOMarshall C. Harrold

• Born a slave, I made my life what best I
  couldYet never forced on anyone my will.I did
  my work, whatever was commanded,But to command
  another gave no thrill.
• The Old World fades without regret.There, A
  slave I would ever be.This New World was a land
  of HopeThat at last has set me free.

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• A thousand leagues we trod in those long years,I
  always led the way from tribe to tribe.We were
  all friends because we helped each other.No
  better rule than that can you prescribe.
• I walk in peace, wish peace for all.Wars bring
  nothing more than pain.Tomorrow should we be
  rejected,We rightly hope that we may try again.

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Estevanicos Legacy
Just as his life extended beyond the acquaintance
of a single region and far beyond a single
continent, and just as his experience showed that
a single pair of languages or a single pair of
cultures was insufficient to describe and contain
whatever one might seek to imagine or write about
him, his legacy to colonial Latin American
studies is the invitation, or the requirement, to
think more broadly historically, along
cross-Atlantic lines, theoretically, into
postcolonial formulations, and always beyond the
binary opposition. The value of doing so is to
enlarge the range of questions and insights that
we in colonialist studies might address. The
challenge of doing so is to avoid anachronistic
thinking and facile, misleading comparisons. The
challenge, in other words, is to be at once
historically responsible and theoretically
informed, that is, to act on the basis of what
one knows and to speculate smartly about the
latitudes and limits of the possible.
http//www.mtp.dk/authors/adorno/docs/2002e.h
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