Bernal Díaz del Castillo was born in the very noble, famous and celebrated town of Medina del Campo in the year 1492 at the very time when Christopher Columbus was joining the two worlds.

Bernal tells us that at the time that he made up his mind to come to New Spain, about the year 1517, he was a youth “of about twenty-four years,” a statement which corroborates the date of his birth.

His parents were Don Francisco Díaz del Castillo and Doña María Diez Rejón.

Bernal was not the only son, he tells us of his brother, probably older than himself, whom he wished to imitate.

Bernal himself writes that he was a gentleman, and that his grandparents, his father and his brother were always servants of the Crown and of their Catholic Majesties Don Fernando and Doña Isabel, which Carlos V. confirms by calling them “our retainers and servants.”

If the family of Bernal had not enjoyed esteem and respect in Medina del Campo, the inhabitants would not have chosen Don Francisco as their Regidor. On the other hand, his financial position must have been a very modest one, for the author most certainly came here to seek his fortune, and often complains of his poverty.