Texas Renaissance Festival's Official Website .Within these last few seasons, the Texas Renaissance Festival began performing plays or masques at the end of the day. The performance is around an hour and done in a very stylized way with masks, puppetry and symbolic movements.
This year is the Masque of the conquistadors recounting the escapades of one of the
characters Cabeza de Vaca. The plot is based on his memoirs concerning his advertures in the new world, particuarly in the southern regions of Texas.
The previous description and all these wonderful images are brought to you by Frank Hui. Because of his devotion, I have nothing to add. --Robyn Sotherby
For information regarding the faire, check out the Texas Renaissance Festival's Official Website .
As Always... click on the image for a larger view...
 The royal family commence the start of the play |
 The masque is narrated by Cabeza de Vaca |
 It starts out as a grand expedition by conquistadors to the new world for Spain |
 Cabeza bids a sad farewell to his lady |
 This occurs at a dance |
 Cabeza recounts how they journeyed to the floridian regions |
 A long trek is reenacted |
 They reach land with great expectation and hope |
 An encounter with natives leads unfortunately to an ugly battle |
 The men sail onward w/ great loss of life, eventually landing along the Texas coast at what they called the Isle of Misfortune |
 After more suffering and loss of lives in their party, the survivors suffer at the hands of the local tribe who fear the spaniards are harbingers of evil |
 They are saved by a princess who befriends them & convinces her people not to fear |
 The spaniards teach the locals the ways of their faith |
 These explorers develop a reputation as faith healers |
 They even manage to revive someone who is dead. Over time they befriend many tribes & are revered |
 Eventually Cabeza returns a stronger and more enlightened man |
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