The current image of the Spanish conquest of America and of the conquistadores who carried it out is one of destruction and oppression. One conquistador does not fit that image. A life-changing adventure led Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca to seek a different kind of conquest, one that would be just and humane, true to Spanish religion and law yet safeguarding liberty and justice for the Indians of the New World.

His use of the skills learned from his experiences with the Indians of North America, however, did not always help him in understanding and managing the Indians of South America, and too many of the Spanish settlers in the Rio de la Plata Province found that his policies threatened their own interests and relations with the Indians. Eventually many of those Spaniards joined a conspiracy that removed him from power and returned him to Spain in chains.