Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca (Image Analysis)

" When...Blood flowed from us in many places where the thorns and shrubs tore our flesh. At times, when my turn came to gather the wood and I had collected it at heavy costs in blood....my only solace was to think of the sufferings of our Redeemer,Jesus Christ, and the blood he had shed for me. How much worse must have been his torment from the thorns than mine here"(Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca ).Wow. My view on Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca's letters was that he thought of himself as a savior. In the preceding quote he is indirectly comparing himself to Jesus Christ. De Vaca,in his letters uses words like "thorns,flesh,blood,sufferings,shed,torment", the thing that these words have in common is that they all have something to do with feeling and bearing pain. In this case,bearing the pain of others. As you can see in this image, Jesus has cuts that are exuding with blood on his body, and his skin looks abnormal. Just looking at him you see the pain on him, you are able to see how he is feeling. He is in agony. He is uncomfortable in the position that he is in,you can definitely tell that he is suffering.The people that he was saving was all of mankind. He sacrificed his life and shed his blood just to make sure that all of our sins were forgiven. He didn't have to do that. One can conclude that Cabeza De Vaca thinks of himself as equal to Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. He feels that being in captivity and having to live with these Native Americans and going by their customs is a way of saving his homeland. He expresses this through the last line of his quote."How much worse must have been his torment form the thorns than mines here". (Cabeza De Vaca). He didn't have to go explore the New World, but he did because he was willing to sacrifice his life and self-respect for the benefit of his country. He is bearing the pain of his country,which rightfully belonged to Charles V. His main purpose for writing this letter is to gain the respect of the king of Spain. He wants him to know that his expedition was extremely arduous and that he did his absolute best to complete what he set out to accomplish. He feels he should not receive a lot of criticism for not completing his task but that he should receive some sort of praise for how hard he tried.