Probably the first Spaniard to investigate the Southwestern United States, he was shipwrecked in 1528 off the Gulf Coast (Texas coast) with three others, including a North African named Estevan who would join an expedition into what is now Arizona with Marcos de Niza. They were captured by locals and made into slaves. They mostly travelled across Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico, however, it is possibly that they travelled into southeastern Arizona on their journeys. Regardless, when their party ran into a Spanish slaving party eight years later in Culiacan, Sinoloa they told them many stories about great kingdoms in the north. Many of these stories fueled the future expeditions of Spaniards into the area.

Websites

Catholic Encyclopedia: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03126c.htm

PBS.org- The West, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/cabezadevaca.htm

Route of De Vaca
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/trails_ter/cabeza.htm

Handbook of Texas Online: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/fca6.html
 

From Center for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest Texas State University

Alvar  Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
http://www.English.swt.edu/CSS/Vacaindex.HTML

Alvar  Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (bibliography)
http://www.english.swt.edu/CSS/AlvarBIBCDV.HTML

Alvar  Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
http://www.english.swt.edu/CSS/alvar1CDV.HTML
 

Books/Manuscripts

La relación: The journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536; translated from his own narrative by Fanny Bandelier, together with the report of  Father Marcos of Nizza and a letter from the viceroy Mendoza. Edited, with an introd., by Ad. F. Bandelier.
E125 .N9 N913 1973

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca; the journey and route of the first European to cross the continent of North America, 1534-1536, by Cleve Hallenbeck.
E125 .N9 H3

Conquistador in chains : Cabeza de Vaca and the Indians of the Americas / David A. Howard.
E125.N9 H68 1997

De Grazia paints Cabeza de Vaca; the first non-Indian in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, 1527-1536.
ND237.D3337  A43

Imperial histories from Alfonso X to Inca Garcilaso : revisionist  myths of reconquest and conquest / Roberto J. Gonzalez-Casanovas.
DP97.6 .G66x 1997

The narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Translated by Fanny Bandelier.  Introd. by John Francis Bannon.  Illus. by Michael McCurdy.  With Oviedo's version of the lost Joint report presented to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, translated by Gerald Theisen.
E125 .N9 N96 1972

Spanish explorers in the southern United States, 1528-1543 : the narrative of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca / edited by Frederick W. Hodge. The narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto by the gentleman of Elvas / edited by Theodore H. Lewis. The narrative of the expedition of Coronado, by Pedro de Castañeda / edited by Frederick W. Hodge.
E123 .S75 1977