BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
Born into a poor family, Bernal Diaz Del Castillo grew up to join the military. In 1514, he made his way to America, traveling along with Pedarias Davila, the recently appointed Darien governor. From there, Castillo headed to Cuba just three years later, enlisting in the Yucatan expedition under the direction of Francisco de Cordoba.
After a year there, he moved on to Mexico, this time traveling with Grijalva but soon came back to Mexico. In honor of his exemplary military services of serving in 119 battles, Castillo was named governor of Santiago de los Caballeros, located in Guatemala, calling it home. However, by 1552, Cortes’ chaplain and secretary, Gomara, wrote and published his Cronica de la Conquista de Nueva Espana.
After reading the journal, Castillo felt Cortes was not given enough credit. With this, Castillo was prompted to write his version entitled, ‘Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva Espana”, which was a more accurate narrative of the events that had taken place to counteract all of Gomara’s inconsistencies. Unfortunately, his work was not published until 1632 when Father Alonso Remon from Order of Our Lady of Mercy located it in a private library and took it to Madrid where it was finally published. Although the writing is profound, it is crudely written and without style.
Then in 1689, a man by the name of Francisco de Fuentes claimed to be one of Castillo’s descendants. With this, Fuentes provided facts regarding Castillo’s work that know one was aware of until that time. From this, we have learned that Castillo was actually a distinguished man, someone of nobility with his father being the governor of Medina del Campo.
Born in 1492, Castillo died in 1581 but not until he had written about his days as a Spanish conquistador. As an adventurer and explorer of Mexico and Peru, Bernal Diaz del Castillo saw and experienced many important things. While you can tell he had little education from his writings, his eyewitness accounts are truly remarkable, providing readers with firsthand information about some very important historical events.
Although there were many fascinating conquistadors, Castillo was able to capture one account written in the journal about one of the most successful military campaigns in history, which ended the Aztec empire of Mesoamerica. Although he never lived to see his writings published, they have indeed opened the eyes of many who have had the honor of reading them.