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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... Fernando that particular art work is probably one of the best known of the soldados...
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Yes, Jim; a watercolour by (not so known) Raymundus àMurillo, dated early XIX century, depicting an early XVIII century soldado cuera, kept in the Indias Archive in Seville.
The caption tells that this 'short' cuera was made with 7 suede skins in the quilted manner. Initial cueras were as large as down to the knee, and had wonderful decorations in their seams and pockets (per Jesuit father Pferffek); with vents in the front and back to make it easy for the mounting and sleeveless, not to embarass weapons handling; but still too heavy, with 12 to 15 pounds. In the provinces of Coahuila, Nueva León and Texas a version using padded cotton was used, but its efficacy was lower than those with 7 skins. Even so an arrow shot by a strong native could get through a 8 skin cuera.
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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... The cuera seem to have evolved from these buff type liners which effectively buffered the mail, which was far more common than the steel cuirass.
With mail, it however quickly deteriorated without proper maintainance, and was terribly ineffective against arrows which spread and broke the rings, especially if corroded and brittle. Soon the mail was discarded, and the leather took over...
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That's how it all started, ever since the conquest period; however not discarding the mail but the cuirass, according to a comprehensive and irrefutable work sponsored by the Ministery of Defence, written by José Maria Bueno "Los Dragones Cuera" (PDF below ... in Spanish
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Looks like the Spaniards were encouraged by the cuera resource by a similar implement worn by natives, especially the Aztecs, in quilted cotton.
In 1779 lieutenant D. Luis Bertucat created his own version of cuirass, made with imbricated lamellae of tin. It was rather lighter than the cuera and more effective against arrows, as per tests carried out in Chihuahua. He produced 50 units covering his own the costs, which equipped Croix's personal guard. Having proved to be useful in a 1780 combat, they were no further produced, with reasons unknown by the miltary. The author has never seen on of these devices.
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