Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Born in Medina del Campo, Spain, Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a soldier who took part in expeditions to the Americas and later joined Hernán Cortés in the campaign that led to the fall of Tenochtitlán. He eventually settled in Guatemala, where he served as a local official as well as a landholder.

He is best known for The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, a memoir-like chronicle written later in life. In it, he pushed back against polished official versions of the conquest and tried to preserve the experiences of the ordinary soldiers who had been there.

That gives his work its lasting appeal: it is not calm or detached, but vivid, personal, and full of scenes, names, and arguments. Even centuries later, readers still turn to it as one of the most important eyewitness narratives of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.