De Vacas fate

Gustavo Quintero
English 48A
September 28, 2007
Journal #5 Norton Anthology

Quote:
"After we had dismissed the Indians in peace and thanked them for their toil in or behalf, the Christians subtly sent us on our way in the charge of an alcalde named Cebreros,attended by two horseman."

Summary:
This seems to be the culmination and the end of De Vacas stay with the Native American tribes. Here De Vaca is bidding farewell to the Native American tribes and asking them to rebuild their towns. To which the tribes, only if the Christians let us.

Response:
It seems unsuitable for such a great and helpful man to be taken away in shackles as is the case in the above quote. The Christians I assume are taking De Vaca away in shackles because of his fondness for the Native American tribes. The Christians live by an ideology that all men are created equal and all men should be treated as they would want to be treated. Yet we see that throughout the writings of Columbus and De Vaca we clearly see that this was not the case. It must be somewhat frustrating and upsetting to people of the Native American culture that not much of their history or their enslavement is taught about throughout the ages. Up until just before I had taken this course I can Honestly say (although I am embarrassed now) that I did not know of the hardships of the early cultures in America's history. By reading the Norton anthology and Loewen's book my eyes have been opened wider than they have ever been before. It is refreshing to know that after all these years one can still learn something new about a subject that one thought they were at the least familiar with. Along With De Vaca I feel a lot more sympathy for the Native American culture. Its disheartening that in his time De Vaca was arrested for trying to teach people the power of racial equality.

To finish off my thoughts about De Vaca, I completely agree with Scott when he brought up his idea about making a movie about De Vaca's life. Imagine just how moving and powerful a well written screenplay could be adapted from the journals of this man.