European Studies SMLC HKU School of Modern Languages and Cultures HKU
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News & Events

9 February 2015

Film Screening
Cabeza de Vaca

9 February 2015 (Mon),
6:00pm-8:00pm,
Room 4.34, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU.

Cabeza de Vaca


This film recounts the story of a Spanish conqueror and explorer who was shipwrecked in 1527 and lived in Native American society for eight years before returning to Spanish lands. He published a memoir of his travels in 1542, which serves as the basis for the film. A Mexican production directed by Nicolás Echevarría in 1991 for the 500's anniversary of Christopher Colombus's voyage to America, this film challenges received notions of the Spanish role in the New World and the relationship between "civilized" and "uncivilized" life and Christianity and Native faiths. It explores De Vaca's sense of alienation, living in a new culture without knowing its language or any other way to communicate with the people around him. In Spanish with English subtitles.

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