Fray Marcos de Niza
(1495?-1542)
The party headed by Cabeza de Vaca related tales of a populated
area far to the north in which the natives spoke of the fabulously rich “Seven
Cities of Cíbola.” This stirred hopes of another Mexico awaiting conquest.
Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain, sent the Franciscan Fray
Marcos to explore the area, guided by Estévan, Cabeza de Vaca’s black
companion. Estévan took to breaking the trail, advancing well beyond Fray
Marcos and the main party. It was thus that he was killed, under circumstances
difficult to confirm, although Fray Marcos would narrate the event as if he had
thorough knowledge of it. In the same fashion, Fray Marcos claimed he had seen
Cíbola, somewhat as Moses had been allowed to glimpse the promised land he
could not enter. His narrative bolstered Cabeza de Vaca’s claims, and moved
Coronado, the Governor of New Galicia, to organize a massive expedition (see
Casteñeda). When it was found, however, that the pueblos, though extraordinary
in their construction, were not centers of great wealth, Fray Marcos lost both
his reputation and his position with Coronado. Yet his text stands as an
example of the rhetoric of promise just over the horizon that would become
essential to the American experience, drawing waves of immigrants in search of
their fortunes.
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