Paralelismos de dependencia narrativa entre dos cronistas de Indias: Francisco López de Gómara y Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Abstract

Much has been said and written on the generic nature of the chronicles of the Indies. However, the focus of traditional orthodox criticism on different works has not always been fair. In general, the chronicles have been analyzed unilaterally, whether from the historical point of view or the narrative perspective, in which qualities are attributed to the texts, or in the worst of cases, defects that they do not necessarily have. The purpose of this article is to analyze some of the narrative features employed by López de Gómara and Díaz del Castillo in their respective works: La historia de las Indias y conquista de México and La historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain). This analysis must be situated in the context of the time, because one must not overlook the fact that the accounts that today we regard as “chronicles of the Indies” were written from the standpoint of and for sixteenth-century European culture. With this perspective, their belonging to diverse narrative subgenres is assessed.