Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán served as the Governor of the provinces of Pánuco and Nueva Galicia a decade after Cortés had destroyed the Aztec Empire.  As a conqueror, he succeeded in bringing a vast new territory under the domain of the Spanish Empire.  However, as an administrator, Nuño de Guzmán terrorized both Spaniards and Indigenous people who stood in his way. Eventually, his slave-trading activities brought an end to his reign of terror.

The saga of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, as recorded in his own narratives, serves as one of the most fascinating chronicles of European exploration in North America and offers one of the earliest and most detailed European perspectives on indigenous life and landscapes in the 16th century.