The History of Texas

Episode 7 follows Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, Alonso del Castillo, and Estebanico as their reputation grows into something far larger than survival. No longer just starving castaways, the four men are received as healers, holy men, and dangerous figures of power. Villages feed them. Crowds follow them. The sick are brought forward. Food is blessed before anyone will eat. But their growing aut...

After nearly six years along the Texas coast, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Castillo, and Estebanico finally make a run for freedom during the prickly pear season. But escape does not mean safety. They walk into hunger, cold, unknown languages, unfamiliar peoples, and a world no European had ever described before. In this episode, the four survivors encounter the Avavares, hear the chilling story of L...

Episode 5: Bleeding Hands and Bitter Roots After years of hunger, captivity, and survival on the Texas coast, the scattered survivors of the Narváez Expedition finally found each other again. Cabeza de Vaca, Estebanico, Andrés Dorantes, and Alonso del Castillo were reunited, but reunion did not mean rescue. They were still trapped in a world far from the Spanish settlements they hoped to reach, su...

Episode 4 - The Island of Ill Fate After the storm, the survivors of the Narváez expedition were no longer conquerors, soldiers, or explorers in control of their fate. They were castaways. Stranded on the Texas coast, hungry, sick, and surrounded by a world they did not understand, Cabeza de Vaca and the remaining Spaniards were forced to depend on the Native peoples of the coast for survival. Thi...

Episode 3 - Cabeza de Vaca: Conquistador to Castaway The Narváez expedition had marched into Florida chasing rumors of wealth, only to find hunger, disease, violence, and disaster. By the time they returned to the coast, their ships were gone. In this episode of The History of Texas, the survivors make a desperate decision. With no proper tools, no safe harbor, and no clear path home, they begin b...

In 1527, a Spanish expedition sailed into the unknown with dreams of wealth, conquest, and glory. Led by Pánfilo de Narváez, hundreds of men crossed the Atlantic under the authority of the Spanish Crown. Their mission was to claim and settle a vast territory called La Florida. But almost from the beginning, the expedition was cursed by storms, confusion, bad decisions, and brutal conditions. In th...

Before it was Texas, it was already ancient. In the first episode of The History of Texas, we go back thousands of years before the Republic, before the Alamo, before Spain, France, Mexico, or the United States ever claimed the land. This episode begins with the earliest people in Texas, from Ice Age hunters and mammoths to stone tools, shifting climates, ancient camps, and the long human story th...

Howdy, and welcome to The History of Texas . This podcast is a chronological journey through the story of one of the most unique and powerful regions in North America—told from its earliest beginnings to the rise of the Lone Star State. From the first peoples who called this land home… To Spanish exploration… To revolution, independence, and beyond… Each episode will build on the last, telling the...