EXHIBIT C
The Daily News
"Opinion" by Bob Moore
Thursday, August 19, 1999
"De Vaca was the true first hero of Texas"
"A recent edition of The Galveston County Daily News included an article with the headline, "Film crew comes in search of explorer," (Aug. 6) in which Spanish adventurer Cabeza de Vaca was noted as "the first surgeon of Texas."
Yet de Vaca's legacy is of greater significance than this statistical footnote suggests.
James Michener's "Texas," begins with an account of de Vaca's journey from Galveston to Mexico City in the early 16th century. Michener describes de Vaca, the first white man to make that trek, as Texas? "first true hero."
De Vaca's commitment to survive physical and mental trauma is well-documented in the original version and English translation of "La Relacion," his report to the king of Spain. Anyone who is searching for a way to fill the void in their life should read it.
In Cyclone Covey's translation, titled "Adventures Into the Unknown Interior" (University of New Mexico Press*), the secret of de Vaca's resourcefulness is revealed and laid out in the book's epilogue, which describes an interpretation of de Vaca's journey by Haniel Long.
Long suggests that "Cabeza de Vaca found in the wilderness the secret of tapping that reservoir of power that is in each of us, a power few are ever able to exert. By being stripped naked, spiritually and physically, the Spaniard was thrust ?into a world where nothing, if done for another, seems impossible.? He recognized, at the close of his journey, that ?the power of maintaining life in others lives within each of us, and from each of us does it recede when unused.?"
The indigenous people rescued de Vaca on Galveston?s beaches in an act of compassion, which he repaid by introducing spiritual and physical healing to his benefactors. More important, de Vaca?s actions reflected his faith. He opposed the enslavement of the New World?s indigenous people, for which he spent eight years in prison on charges trumped up by his enemies. At his urging and through the influence of Bishop Bartholomew de la Casas, the King of Spain soon outlawed slavery in the new Spanish territories.
Today, de Vaca?s vision of a brotherhood of man is clouded by greed and intolerance. We must fight intolerance in all forms and embrace the basic respect for humanity that de Vaca and the indigenous people nurtured on Galveston Island almost 500 years ago.
On the beaches near present-day 13 Mile Road, our state?s indigenous people saved de Vaca and his starving crew on a cold November day in 1527. Here, de Vaca earned that title as "first surgeon in Texas," and put his life on the line to end their forced labor.
Though many social injustices remain for the descendants of these indigenous peoples in the United States and Mexico, the tireless work of one man spared them the insidious long-term consequences of the enslavement of their culture.
For that, let us remember Cabeza de Vaca, the first true hero of Texas."
* University of New Mexico Press
1720 Lomas Boulevard, N.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1591
1-800-249-7737
EXHIBIT D
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Talk presented by Bob Moore on July 24, 1999
Content will be coming soon!
