The History of the Conquest of New Spain

David Carrasco's revised edition of Bernal Díaz del Castillo's classic text The History of the Conquest of New Spain is a welcome addition to the published primary sources on colonial history. This is an abridged version of Alfred P. Maudslay's 1908 translation of the original manuscript, which Diaz wrote in Guatemala between c. 1550 and 1584, the year of his death.

Díaz was a capable writer who described highly dramatic events in clear and usually unemotional prose that sometimes rendered incredible events all the more incredible. Maudslay then translated the original into very readable English prose. Several features of this volume make it especially appealing for both student and faculty readers. First, Carrasco includes summaries of the sections of the original manuscript that do not appear in the published version. Second, this edition contains several chapters beyond what was published in earlier abridged editions. This decision greatly mutes the blaring triumphalist note that closed those versions. The additional chapters provide a more accurate rendering of the longer text and allow readers a view of the chaos, killing, and infighting that accompanied Spanish efforts to consolidate and expand upon the conquest of Tenochtitlan. Finally, the book also includes a series of maps and interpretive essays that provide readers with a far greater understanding of the mind-set of Díaz and other Spaniards, as they conquered a complex group of people led by men skilled in diplomacy and the arts of warfare. In particular, brief essays by Rolena Adorno analyzing Díaz's use of rhetoric, Karen Powers on indigenous women and the beginnings of mestizaje, and Carrasco on the practice of human sacrifice contextualize a variety of issues raised by the text itself and the events narrated therein.

One issue, however, is left unaddressed: the question of whether Díaz actually was the eyewitness to conquest that he claimed to be. Several scholars, including Francis J. Brooks,¹ have argued that he was not. Even if he drew on other texts to aid his memory and the flow of words, the level of detail would seem to belie the claim of his nonparticipation. But the issue should have been covered because it has something to teach students about how to evaluate the use of sources by long-ago writers.

Another matter instructors need to consider is, given the availability of native-language texts in student-friendly editions (some, like Stuart Schwartz's Victors and Vanquished [Boston, 2000] offer both indigenous and Spanish-authored documents), whether this solely Spanish-authored text is the best choice. There is little doubt the book is a classic and has been rendered highly usable in an undergraduate classroom. The more accurate version of the overall text and the additional essays go a long way toward adding indigenous perspectives on a variety of issues relevant to Nahua culture and the events of conquest.