Cabeza de Border

Cabeza de Vaca.
The literal translation of this is "Cow's Head", so first of all, badass name. Second, his epic story "The Account" reads like a Russell Crowe movie. You could totally see Crowe wandering the desert, eating prickly pears, and being enslaved by Indians. So that's cool as well.
But more importantly, I think "The Account" illustrates the thin line that exists between worship and hatred. Essentially, the natives in the book first enslave de Vaca because he's different from them, and then worship him as a kind of holy-man for the exact same reason. I think the dichotomous concepts of worship and enslavement really illustrate the entire Spanish Conquest. The Spaniards were often so foreign to the natives that in many places, they were initially revered as Gods. Likewise, the Spaniards viewed the natives as inferior because they were different than them, and used that to justify their conquest. The differences which spurred these actions on the part of the two peoples ranged from anything like language and religion to the color of the people's skin.
I think its interesting that de Vaca was able to walk on both sides of this border. His brief tale provides a nice frame for the ensuing settlement of Mexico and the Southwest.