this be a really interesting 1991 mexican drama concern the eight year long journey ( 1528 1536 ) of alvar núñez cabeza de vaca and who be shipwreck in florida and enslave by indian and but who find a career a an itinerant indian shaman and and eventually and after an endless journey through swamp and desert and ultimately find his way back to spanish civilization . cabeza de vaca few travel companion and most notably the moor estebanico and help fuel rumor of the seven city of cíbola and which lead directly to the 1540 coronado expedition and the first spanish encounter with the pueblo indian of the rio grande valley of new mexico . cabeza de vaca story be one the great personal survival tale in world history and and it make him one of the very and very few people who could fully appreciate the tragedy of spain conquest of the people of the america . the movie be in spanish with english subtitle and but there be actually little spanish at all and since cabeza de vaca be often alone or isolate and with no one to speak to . he be just as lose a the audience and in a world of indian dialect . the director nicolás echevarría greatly simplify and even over simplify and cabeza de vaca journey . the movie suggest the shipwreck be in florida and but that be actually the journey first bloody stop point . the final shipwreck occur somewhere west of the mississippi delta and and cabeza de vaca enslavement likely occur somewhere near galveston and texas . why leave that part out . well and it complicate and and ultimately for director nicolás echevarría may have be unimportant . echevarría have something else in mind . the important part be that cabeza de vaca be throw into a hallucinatory world of abasement and privation . cabeza de vaca carry a christian cross and and his initial captor decide he should be send to a shaman who also wear a cross and and be put to work tend the need of a spoiled armless gnome . what a horrible existence . the hallucinatory quality be reminiscent of the magical realism pioneer by author gabriel garcía márquez and subsequently use by director like mel gibson in apocalypto . cabeza de vaca real existence may have be a a turtle egg collector on the texas beach and but instead the movie show him apprentice the shaman craft with his captor . cabeza de vaca vision laden emergence a a successful healer be the movie best moment . the transition from swamp to desert be very abrupt and indicate that echevarría wasn not much bother by notion of continuity . indeed and he have only two mexican film location represent the desert ( in coahuila ) and the swamp ( in nayarit ) . as far a i could tell and the indian be less like the real indian of the northern gulf of mexico coast and and more like the indian of mexico . then i remember my history of mexico ( mexico by michael d. coe and third edition and p. 146 ) represent into this uneasy political situation step the last barbaric tribe to arrive in the valley of mexico and the aztec and the people whose face nobody know . they say that they come from a place call aztlan in the west of mexico and believe by some authority to be the state of nayarit and and have wander about guide by the image of their tribal god and huitzilopochtli ( hummingbird on the left ) and who be bear on the shoulder of four priest . . we next see the aztec follow a hand to mouth existence in the marsh of the great lake and or lake of the moon . on they wander and love by none and until they reach some swampy and unoccupied island and cover by rush and near the western shore while it be claim that there the tribal prophecy and to build a city where an eagle be sit on a cactus and hold a snake in it mouth and be fulfil . the director suggest discreetly and by his choice of film location in the nayarit swamp and through simplification and also perhaps by conflation of the texas indians with aztec and and by use a dash of magical realism and that cabeza de vaca real story be about the tragedy of mexico conquest by spain . and cabeza de vaca story be about that and partly at any rate . the film be a meditation about mexico torture birth a a spanish colony . a powerful film and well worth watch .