Diaz del Castillo, Bernal (c. 1492-c. 1581), Spanish soldier and historian who chronicled Cortes's conquest of Mexico.
Prior to Cortes's campaign in Mexico, Diaz had visited Panama and made two trips of discovery to Yucatan, one with Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba in 1517 and one with Juan de Grijalva in 1518. The following year he sailed with Hernando Cortes to Mexico. During the conquest of Mexico, he fought in more than one hundred battles.
Diaz also fought for Pedro de Alvarado in the conquests of El Salvador and Guatemala and was made governor of a Guatemalan town.
His colorful eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico, the three-volume True History of the Conquest of New Spain, has been published in several editions and translations. It is said that next to Cervantes, Bernal Diaz is the most widely read Spanish author.
