The account of veteran conquistador Bernal Diaz is undoubtedly one of most idiosyncratic and fascinating pieces of post colonial literature. It describes the experiences of a private soldier during the controversial Spanish expedition of 1519, which was led by the charismatic and ruthless Hernan Cortes, into the heart of the Aztec empire.
It was a history completed in 1568 almost fifty years after the events described, and was initially entitled by Diaz The True History of the Conquest of New Spain in direct reaction to the works of two other contemporary chroniclers - Francisco Lopez de Gomara and Bartolome Las Casas - which Diaz described as inaccurate, and lacking the credibility of his own work due to the fact he had personally taken part in the campaign.
Diaz' Style
It is a narrative which stands apart from all prior accounts of the conquest. Although it lacks the polished styles of eminent chroniclers like Gomara – something which had made Diaz briefly abandon the work – this serves only to add to its appeal. It is the story of an ordinary foot soldier, motivated by little more than his desire to share with the reader his sense of wonder and achievement at being part of such a unique event, something unparalleled in European colonial history .
His spirit and passion imbue the account with personality; where his feelings of greatness, his moral convictions and his occasional naivety give what Prescott terms an 'irresistible charm' to the narrative. His attention to detail and the vividness of his memory draws us into the world of the conquerors, where he shares with the reader all aspects of the campaign from the practicalities of lack of food and the necessity of sleeping in cumbersome armor, to the mentalities of the men, and their expectations for gold and glory.
Narrative Voice
Consequently, Bernal Diaz emerges as a passionate, volatile character, struggling to assert his point of view as an ordinary soldier, and take his place in a body of literature which, over the succeeding centuries, has manipulated the conquest in the fulfillment of political or cultural aims. He is certainly a likable character, who at times seems to be on the wrong side, and at times can appear as someone the reader can identify with.
Through all of the controversy he is anxious to make the reader understand that some soldiers on the conquest sincerely believed in what they were doing, and a twenty-first century reader can still empathize with some of his his feelings as he entered those Indian towns and villages and marveled at the landscape.
A defiant Celebration
However, Diaz cannot hide the fact that many of his fellow Conquistadors did not act well, and that he too is implicated in their savagery; there were those who committed massacres and murders, those who were motivated by a greed for gold, but he wants the reader at least to make the distinction between their intentions and his own.
Some people, he seems to be asserting, did want to settle in the country in order to make an honest living and not just to exploit and capitalize on the vulnerability of the indigenous population. His narrative has an element of defiance which is oddly disarming, and makes it unique in its expression of vision and memory. He is defiant in spite of the dubious basis of the Cortes expedition and will maintain to the end that it was a wonderful and amazing achievement.
Sources
Diaz, Bernal : The Conquest of New Spain, Translated and
Introduced by J.M.Cohen.Penguin Books, 1963
Prescott,W.H.: The Conquest of Mexico,London , 1886
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