Fanny Bandelier was born Fanny Ritter in 1860 in Zurich, Switzerland, and lived in Lima, Peru, for many years. Together with her husband, Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier, an eminent researcher of pre-Columbian and Hispanic America, she produced much research, especially about the Pueblo people.

Cabeza de Vaca was born sometime between 1485 and 1492 in Andalusia, Spain. After a serving a series of dukes, his military career began with the first Spanish incursion to Naples under the Duke of Medina Sedonia, a powerful noble of Castille. Cabeza de Vaca served with the duke again in 1520, during the Comunero Revolt that opposed the new king, Carlos V. In 1527, Cabeza de Vaca joined Pánfilo de Narváez on his expedition to La Florida.

After the Narváez expedition to La Florida failed, Cabeza de Vaca and the only other three survivors wandered the southwest of the United States and northern Mexico over a period of many years. They reached Mexico City where they co-wrote a report of their travels, but this Joint Report no longer exists. All we have is a 16th-century summary by the Spanish historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo from his Historia general y natural de las Indias (General and Natural History of the Indies).