Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Bernal Diaz del Castillo was a Spanish soldier and chronicler who arrived in the New World in 1514 and participated in three expeditions launched into Mexico from the Spanish bases in Cuba. The third expedition, headed by Hernan Cortes and begun in 1519, resulted in the death of the Aztec leader Montezuma, the destruction of his marvelous capital city, Tenochtitlan (referred to by Diaz as the "City of Mexico"), and the fall of the Aztec empire. Diaz was not a particularly noted soldier, but was more recognized for his account of the conquest, which he wrote back in Spain in the 1560s, many decades after the events themselves.

Debates about the actions of Spanish conquistadors in the New World were well under way by the time Diaz wrote this account, and his approach was much more favorable to Cortes...