Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
by Richard GorbyFor anyone perusing maps of Yavapai County as early as 1865 to the present, the twelve mile square in the upper left corner is bound to be noticeable, perhaps puzzling: "Luis Marie Baca Grant. Float No. 5."
Using An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, 1878, one finds:"Grant: A transfer of property by deed or writing; especially an appropriation of property by the government, as a grant of land." Float is defined as "a government grant of a fixed amount of land not yet located by survey out of a larger specific tract."
Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca was a lineal descendant of Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, to whom the King of Spain granted a large tract of land in what was then New Mexico, later adding land in Colorado and Arizona. The spelling change is interesting, undoubtedly used because the descendants didn't like to be called "Head of Cow."
After this, grants were made by the Mexican Government in 1821 to heirs of Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca. They were authorized to select land near Las Vegas, New Mexico, then called Las Vegas Grandes. They were unable to secure all the land owing to conflicting grants. Congress passed an Act, June 21, 1860, authorizing the heirs to select an equal acreage in squares not exceeding five in number. Luis Maria Baca Grant, Float Number 5, was one of these.
The origin of this rather strange name is interesting. The family of Cabeza de Vaca originally bore the name Alhaja. They were simple peasants until after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, on July 11, 1212, which the Kings of Castile, Aragon, and Navarro won over the Moors. A few days before the battle, a shepherd by the name of Alhaza offered to show the Christian forces a path by which they might circumvent the mountain passes held by the Moors. To indicate it, he placed at the entrance of the defile the skull of a cow. In recompense for this service, Martin Alhaja, until then a humble shepherd, was ennobled, and he changed his name to Cabeza de Vaca (Head of a Cow) in memory of his good fortune.
Some two hundred years later, a journey across the continent from near what is now Galveston, Texas, to Sinaloa, Mexico, was a remarkable experience. The travelers were Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonada, and Estevan, Dorante's black slave.
These men were the few survivors of the Narvaez expedition of four hundred men who, in February, 1518, sailed from the coast of Cuba to explore the peninsula of Florida. Most of the rest lost their lives at the hands of hostile Indians, by disease, or by shipwreck.
DeVaca and six companions had escaped by barge to the coast, near the Sabine River, where the barge had sunk.
"We lifted the barge out of the sand into which it had sunk (for which we all had to take off our clothes) and had great work to set her afloat, as our condition was such that much lighter things would have given us trouble. Then we embarked. Two crossbow shots from shore a wave swept over us, we all got wet, and being naked and the cold very great, the oars dropped out of our hands. The next wave overturned the barge. The inspector and two others clung to her to save themselves, but the contrary happened; they got underneath the barge and were drowned.
"The shore being very rough, the sea took the others and thrust them, half dead, on the beach of the same island again, less the three that had perished underneath the barge.
"The rest of us, as naked as we had been born, had lost everything. It was in November, bitterly cold, and we in such a state that every bone could easily be counted, and we looked like death itself."
Rescued by Indians, who lit fires to warm them and took them to their homes, deVaca and the others survived. For the next six years they lived in various tribes, sometimes as slaves and almost always ill-clothed and hungry, until reaching the central area of today's Texas, where most of the Indians treated them as friends.
After eight years Cabeza de Vaca and friends finally reached Culiacan, in Sinaloa. On the minds of the Spanish occupants of that area, the impression of the feat performed by the travelers and the tale of their sufferings produced a great effect.
DeVaca returned to Spain and was awarded the position of Governor of the settlements on the La Plata River. Reaching his post in 1541, he soon was regarded with animosity by his subordinates, which broke out, in 1543, to open revolt. He was sent to Spain as a prisoner and spent some time in "mild" captivity.
He lived in Seville " to an advanced age", and occupied an honorable and fairly lucrative position. It seems likely that Cabeza de Vaca was an honest and well-intentioned man who may have been unfit for superior command.
Although honored by being awarded the large area of land that later became the five "Luis Maria Baca Grants," he somehow lost most of the honor by having his name spelled differently.
(Richard Gorby is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum)
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Our readers' thoughts...
I realy enjoyed reading about Cabeza de Vaca as I am decendent of them. I will print it out and put in my history folder for my grandchildren.
Thank you
Viola
May 8, 2007
First of all, thank you for posting this article.
I'am a direct decendant of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca.
I'am the youngest of nine children, son of William a. / Margaret m. Baca. in Las Vegas, NM
I wish the U.S. government would make good on this land grant.
My father is a WW II veteran my Grandfather gave much of his life to the U.S. government.
Jess Baca
May 10, 2007
My great grandfather was Don Jose Albino Baca who build and lived in the "Baca Mansion" in "upper town Las Vegas New Mexico."
My mother Dolores Baca lived with her grandfather in the house with her parents Miguel Baca and Margaret Frank.
Don Jose Albino Baca was of the Luis maria Cabeza de Baca family.
I am trying to put together some family history but I go around in circles using the internet.
I might have to travel back from London UK to my hometown of Las Vegas New Mexico to find more accurate information.
Dolly Loth
July 31, 2007
My wife's Grandmother was named Maria C DeBaca, married to Patricio Sena in Los Vegas New Mexico around 1890. My information suggested that Cabeza de Vaca heirs may not actually exist in the southwest. The explanation that I received from a Genealogy Group that someone may have changed their name because of preference. This is conjecture on their part.Celeste Ford(C de Baca),a relative did believe she was related to the explorer. In order to prove a relationship we need DNA from another source, probably from Spain.
Frank Barton
October 3, 2007
The article on Cabeza de Vaca was very good up to a point. You end the article with ignoble comments about a very noble person. His name was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.Of all the Spanish explorers he is without a doubt the most noble, honest, resourceful and truly religious man. When speaking of Spanish exploration the words “greedy and cruel” are always used by authors, he was non of this. When he was named Adelantado of the province of Rio de la Plata he prohibited enslaving, raping and looting of the natives. That is why those that were there specically for that purpose conspired against him. The Council of the Indies believed the conspirators and he was sent back to Spain in chains. The king, on hearing of this travesty anulled his sentence and awarded him a pension. He died in honor a few years later with his wife at his side. If there’s a Spaniard that merits the honor of being called a true hero, it is Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.
Fred
March 25, 2008
Read more Days Past articles
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (ra143p). Reuse only by permission.
Oaks and Willows was a center for cattle ranching on the what is known historically as the "Baca Float No.5" in 1964. The float, which is like any other private land, still shows on maps since its creation in the 1860s, although is it merely a historical designation.