Bernal Diaz's Recollection Of The Conquest Of Tenochtitlan

The past holds never-changing events, although those who have lived through those events may have diverging recollections and interpretations regarding the events that had taken place. Perception, along with other factors, are the cause of this. An example of perception possibly altering a recollection of actual historical events is Bernal Diaz de Castillo’s recollection of the conquest of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). Diaz at the time, was a Spanish soldier during the conquest of Mexico City, which took place from 1519 to 1521. At the age of eighty-four years old in 1568, over forty years after the events had taken place, Diaz produced a narrative from his time as a soldier during the conquest of Mexico City. Diaz self proclaims in his recollection
After his explanation as to why he chose to tell of his times during the conquest, Diaz explains the amazement experienced between the Aztecs and the Spanish upon their arrival. The Aztecs were amazed by the sight of the light-skinned Spanish men riding on horses as it was something that they had never seen before. The Spanish were so amazed by the sights of the land, such as the abundance of people and the buildings. Once it was time for Captain Cortes, Diaz’s superior, to meet with Montezuma, they were treated with respect and hospitality. Diaz makes this evident by is telling that Montezuma presented Captain Cortes with a “necklace made of gold crabs” in which he “greatly astonished his [own] Captains by the great honor that he was bestowing on him.”(36) Diaz described Montezuma as being dressed in lavish clothing and to have been treated by his people as some sort of Godly entity. Diaz then talks about a conversation held between Montezuma and Cortez in which Cortes spoke of the religious view of the Spanish--Christianity. Cortes explains the beliefs and practices of the religion as a plead to get him to discontinue the Aztec practice of human sacrifices to the Gods. On their fourth day, the Spanish men took a trip to the marketplace where they were awed by the merchants and
Diaz’s narrative is questionable considering that he had produced it not only at the ripe age of eighty four, but he had also done so over forty years after the events had taken place. Reasonably, bias would play a role in his narrative, seeing as he was involved in the events as a soldier and he would most likely want him and his people to not seem like villains in the eyes of others. The presentation and tone of Diaz’s narrative was kept was kept more so light. He did not try to paint the Aztecs as villains, which would cause one to determine that there is some truth to his word, the only question being what parts are accurate and which are filled with bias. Some of his claims such as that their reasoning behind capturing Montezuma was due to fear of facing attack seems questionable. It should be noted that the Spanish came to this decision following their trips to the marketplace where they had seen its enticing success, although that may not be their actual reasoning as to why the choice to do so. With all this considered, the document did include details such as the perspective of a Spanish soldier as well as which would still be relevant in today’s time to create a base of the events that occurred back in