How is Cabeza de Vaca different than other spanish conquistadors?

Question:How is Cabeza de Vaca different than other spanish conquistadors?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: How is Cabeza de Vaca different than other spanish conquistadors?

By 1532, only three other members of the original expedition were still alive -- Alonso del Castillo Maldonando, Andrés Dorantes de Carranca, and Estevan, an African slave. Together with Cabeza de Vaca, they now headed west and south in hopes of reaching the Spanish Empire's outpost in Mexico, becoming the first men of the Old World to enter the American West. Their precise route is not clear, but they apparently traveled across present-day Texas, perhaps into New Mexico and Arizona and through Mexico's northern provinces. In July 1536, near Culiacán in present-day Sinaloa, they finally encountered a group of fellow Spaniards who were on a slave-taking expedition. As Cabeza de Vaca remembered, his countrymen were "dumbfounded at the sight of me, strangely dressed and in company with Indians. They just stood staring for a long time."

Appalled by the Spanish treatment of Indians, in 1537 Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain to publish an account of his experiences and to urge a more generous policy upon the crown. He served as a Mexican territorial governor, but was soon accused of corruption, perhaps for his enlightened conduct toward Indians. He returned to Spain and was convicted; a 1552 pardon allowed him to become a judge in Seville, Spain, a position which he occupied until his death in 1556 or 1557.

his name means head of a cow. Which probably ensured he was bullied in school.

Surely this is a significant difference.

He was more simpathetic toward the native [Indio] population.

he was a we bit nicer to the natives

I think he was the first to land on the Texan shore, and his expedition actually ended fairly well, while most others (such as the Narvaez) was a disaster.