Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narvaez expedition.

During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536.

After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first published in 1542 as La Relacion (“The Account”[3]), which in later editions was retitled Naufragios (“Shipwrecks”). Cabeza de Vaca is sometimes considered a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of American Indians that he encountered.