Issue Essays:
Cabeza de Vaca: The Rider on the Psychic Borderlands
in Nicolas Echevarria's Cabeza de Vaca
by
Paul GalanteHistory as Film / Film as History
Scholars are involved in an ongoing debate on the notion of film as an appropriate medium
for the representation of history. Historian Robert Rosenstone suggests that "no matter how
serious or honest the filmmakers, and no matter how deeply committed they are to rendering
the subject faithfully, the history that finally appears on the screen can never fully satisfy the
historian as historian (although it may satisfy the historian as filmgoer)" (1173)....
The Many Faces of Cabeza de Vaca
by
Sara Asheroff and Michael JosephIntroduction
What is history? What makes an event historical? According to Michel-Rolph Trouillot,
“History is the fruit of power.” With this statement, one can infer that the historian who writes
and portrays history has the power to persuade the minds of future generations. Both students
and teachers often overlook this power. Do we ever stop to ask ourselves the validity of the
account that we are reading? When watching films and documentaries, do we even wonder
how the viewer can be manipulated by the director into believing his or her own opinions about
history? It is important for us, the learners of history, to understand that through different
media, we can perceive the same events in highly different lights...