Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Born in Medina del Campo in Castile around 1495 or 1496, he traveled to the Americas as a young man and took part in expeditions in the Caribbean and along the mainland coast before joining Hernán Cortés in the campaign against the Aztec Empire. He later settled in Guatemala, where he served as a municipal official.

He is best known for Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain), a long account he wrote late in life. In it, he pushed back against polished histories written by others and tried to preserve the experiences of the ordinary soldiers who fought alongside Cortés.

That mix of memory, argument, and vivid scene-making is what gives his work lasting power. Readers still turn to it not only for its historical importance, but also for the feeling of hearing a participant speak directly across the centuries.