Bernal Diaz – A summary of sorts

The Life and Family of Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Bernal Diaz was born in Castile around 1495.  In 1514, Diaz participated in the expedition of Pedrarias Avila to establish a Castilian colony in Panama, and in 1517 and 1518 he participated in expeditions on the Yucatan coast.   Between 1519 and 1522, he joined Hernan Cortes in the conquest of Mexico.  Diaz later went on the Cortes expedition to Honduras.

Following the expedition to Honduras, Bernal Diaz settled for a time on an encomienda in Mexico where he wrote his probanza de merito, which can still be found in the Archivo de Indias in Seville.  Diaz returned to Spain twice to plead his case for a pension, but ultimately he settled in Guatemala.  On his encomienda there, Diaz concerned himself with establishing a community and a family.  Around 1555, Diaz began his memoir, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana.  Diaz died in 1584.

Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana

The memoir is in part another attempt to gain a pension from the Spanish crown, but also a response to the account by Francisco Lopez de Gomara published in 1552.  Lopez’s account was simplified, journalistic narrative taken from interviews, mostly of Cortes himself.  Diaz seems to have felt slighted by Lopez’s treatment and wrote an account to minimize Cortes’s role as an inspired military leader.

At least one version of the manuscript was sent to Spain in 1575.  A friar there added to the manuscript, and this version was published in 1632.  Additionally, manuscripts were kept in Guatemala, at least one of which was edited by Bernal Diaz’s son.  In 1904 a scholar published a version based on the Guatemala manuscripts, claiming that it was as Bernal Diaz intended it, without additions.

Like Diaz and the conquistadors themselves, the Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana stands at the threshold of two eras.  Diaz drew heavily on the traditions of the Latin chronicle that can trace its roots to early Rome.  Medieval Spain had a rich corpus of chronicles that narrated the military conquest of Al-Andalus (some examples can be found on the Zotero Group Library).  In many ways Diaz’s work bears a striking resemblance to these narratives, with its concern about military action, spoils, and proper modes of behavior.  At the same time, it is very different, composed in the first-person and in the vernacular.  Indeed, Diaz’s work resembles closely the Llibre dels Fets of king James I of Aragon, also written in the first-person vernacular, and also in some ways an apologetic response to critics (also listed on the Zotero Group Library).  Recent studies have concentrated on the debt Diaz and other contemporary chroniclers owed to Renaissance rhetoric and to Humanism (examples can be found on the Zotero Group Library).