Background
Bernal Díaz del Castillo was born in 1498 in Medina del Campo in Spain of a respectable although not distinguished family. Because of lack of money Bernal received little education.
He was enchanted by tales of the fortunes to be found in newly discovered America, and in 1514 he decided to sail to Tierra Firme with the expedition led by Pedrarias Davila to make his fortune. But after two unsuccessful years he hardly found any opportunities there. Many of the settlers had been sickened and killed by an epidemic or during political unrest.
Being disillusioned he later moved on to Cuba. While there, he participated in two expeditions which explored the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico in 1517 and 1518, respectively. In early March 1517, after a 21-day trip they discovered the Yucatán coast, on the Cape Cotoche. They returned to Cuba, all of the crew severely wounded after the fights with natives. The captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and other soldiers died shortly after making it back to Cuba.
For the second time Díaz returned to the coast of Yucatán in April 1518, in an expedition led by Juan de Grijalva, with the intent of exploring the newly discovered lands.
From the February 18, 1519 was a soldier in the army of Pedro de Alvarado with whom he participated in the conquest of the Aztec empire. Castillo was an eyewitness to the imprisonment and death of Moctezuma and Cuitláhuac rulers, so-called "Noche Triste" and a fight for taking of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Later he joined the expedition of Gonzalo de Sandoval to Coatzacoalcos and became a ruler of the Holy Spirit.
In 1540 he went to Spain to plead for more substantial recognition of his merits and services. He was rewarded by a somewhat better allocation of lands and indigenous people in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros of Guatemala. His family decided to settle here permanently. He became a respected citizen, a municipal official, and the father of a numerous progeny, legitimate and illegitimate. But until his death about 1585, he complained of poverty and bemoaned the inconspicuous rewards he had received for his services to the King.