Esteban: The African Slave Who Explored America by Dennis Herrick (review)

Known as Estevanico in most historical accounts, Esteban, the focus of Dennis Herrick’s biography, was a black African Moor who participated in two important expeditions to North America during the early sixteenth century. Herrick asserts that because Esteban was a black slave, his agency has been diminished, portrayed negatively, and all but erased. From 1528 to 1536, he was one of the four castaways who survived the disastrous Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to “La Florida” and took part in an extraordinary eight-year odyssey across the North American continent. In 1539, the viceroy ordered Esteban to guide Fray Marcos de Niza on a follow-up expedition in search of rumored wealthy cities to the north. Brother Marcos sent him several days ahead to reconnoiter and never saw him again. Periodically, Esteban sent back information with Mexican Indian scouts, but he pushed on and reached the pueblo of Hawikku in western New Mexico, where he disappeared from history, ostensibly killed by the Zuni.

Esteban was almost certainly the first African to travel through lands that would become Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Yet, according to Herrick, he is seldom given proper recognition for his accomplishments as an explorer. Only two city parks named after him in Arizona and a small bronze bust of his likeness in a community center in El Paso, Texas, celebrate his contributions to the history of the American Southwest.

Herrick’s stated purpose in the book is to bring Esteban’s story “into the foreground” and challenge misconceptions and myths about him (1). This is not an easy task, given his marginal existence and the thin references to him in contemporaneous records. Esteban is mentioned by name or referred to by his skin color (“el negro”) in Spanish chronicles such as Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación (1542) and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s Historia general y natural de las Indias (written around 1547, published in 1855), but his own voice is never heard. The references that do exist are often vague, and many assumptions are made about his likely origins in Morocco, his life as a slave in Spain, and his death in the Americas. Herrick discusses many of these conjectures and presents Native American oral history as well as recent research by Arab historians to paint a broader picture. For long stretches, however, Herrick retells the same story as Cabeza de Vaca and Fernández de Oviedo, but occasionally he reads between the lines and points out how Esteban might have participated in the events. Undisputed and duly emphasized are his linguistic aptitude, which allowed him to learn several indigenous languages, and his inter-cultural skills, all of which made him a vital member of Cabeza de Vaca’s party. Herrick argues that the Moor was the principal intercessor between Spaniards and Natives and thus key in the castaways’ survival.

Perhaps the most interesting contributions of Herrick’s book are an updated expedition route based on “Nugent Brasher’s on-the-ground research” (169) and the lengthy discussion on the African’s alleged demise. There are no eyewitness accounts of Esteban’s death, but according to the author, many assumptions have been made based on hearsay, fantasy, and lies. Herrick spends three chapters presenting various possible scenarios to dispel persistent myths, among them that the Zuni killed Esteban because he touched their women. While Herrick allows that the Zunis might have killed the Moor for other reasons, he also offers recent studies that hypothesize that Esteban might have faked his own death to escape slavery.

The book does not present any new scholarship, but it coalesces a great deal of information and offers interesting insights. The bibliography is impressive, and the notes may prove useful for readers.