Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492?-1581?), Spanish historian, born in Medina del Campo. He went to the Americas in 1514 and achieved distinction as a soldier under the Spanish adventurer and conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés; Díaz is said to have fought in more than 100 battles from 1517 to 1519, during the conquest of Mexico. He later fought (1523-1524) under Pedro de Alvarado, who conquered the territory now known as El Salvador and Guatemala. Díaz was made governor of the Guatemalan town of Almolonga, subsequently renamed Santiago de los Caballeros. His history of the conquest of Mexico, started in 1568, and published in three volumes in 1632, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (translated as The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, 1800), is famed for the objectivity of the writing.