Bernal Del Castillo Research Paper

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Bernal Diaz del Castillo Bernal Diaz was born in 1492 or 1498 to Maria Diaz Rejón and Francisco Diaz del Castillo, a regidor (council member) of the town of Medina del Campo, in Castilla y León. The family was distinguished but not wealthy. In 1514, Bernal went to seek his fortune in America with Pedrarias Dávila (Pedro Árias de Ávila), Bishop Fonseca's newly appointed governor of Castilla del Oro. A cruel and unscrupulous schemer, Pedrarias excelled at extorting riches by torturing native rulers, looting gems and gold from their graves, and eliminating potential rivals. (Pedrarias had his prospective son-in-law Balboa and four companions beheaded on trumped-up charges in 1519.) Famine and pestilence were rampant then in Castilla del Oro. The …show more content…

Despite the untruth (Diaz was never a captain) the True History quickly became a much republished and translated bestseller. In 1672, Diaz' great-great-grandson, Antonio Francisco Fuentes y Guzmán, compared one of Fray Remón’s editions with the family's manuscript and found significant differences. There were changes in dates and events; in places, entirely new narratives replaced sections of the family original. Fray Remón, aided by fellow Mercedarian Fray Gabriel Adarzo y Santander, had taken great liberties with Diaz' work. A faithful edition of Diaz' Guatemala manuscript became available only at the turn of the 20th century, when Mexican historian Genaro García published it in two volumes appearing a year apart, in 1904 and 1905. In 1908, the Hakluyt Society published The Discovery and the Conquest of Mexico 1517-1521, Alfred P. Maudslay’s English translation of the major part of the Genaro García