South African Avocado Growers’ Association
Yearbook 1987. 10:11-12
Proceedings of the First World Avocado Congress
Early history of the avocado during the time
of the Conquistadores
Department of Plant Pathology, University of
California, Riverside, California 92521, USA, and Antigua,
Guatemala.
†ln Life: Director Escuela Agricola Panamericana, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Soon after the discovery of the Americas,
the Spanish Conquistadores discovered the avocado as an unusual, savoury fruit
in northern South America, Central America and Mexico in the early 1500s. From
Fernandez de Enciso's first report of this new fruit in Colombia in 1519, many
Spanish publications and later, in the 17th century, English ones described and
lauded the avocado.
From these
beginnings over 400 years ago, the avocado, an-indigenous fruit to the
Americas, has been introduced into many countries with suitable climates around
the world and a sizeable avocado industry has developed.
Before the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century, the
avocado was known only to the native inhabitants of Latin America - the
indigenous peoples of Mexico, Central America and northern South America. The
Spanish Conquistadores discovered numerous different and unusual fruits and
vegetables indigenous to the Americas, among which the avocado. They soon
published their findings and transported fruit and seeds back to the Old World
(primarily to Spain).
The first published record of what is now known
as the avodado, is in the report of Spanish Conquistador Martin Fernandez de
Enciso, who observed this fruit in 1519 as commonly grown near Santa Marta,
Colombia. When he wrote the report, Enciso did not know that he was announcing
to the Old World the discovery of a fruit which, 400 years later, would become
the basis of an extensive horticultural industry in many countries. Seven years
later another Spaniard, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, published his 'Sumario de
la Natural Historia de la Indias', in which he gave a more complete description
of "... certain trees called pear trees, but not like those of Spain ...
they have many advantages over our pears ...". Oviedo also saw these trees
along the north coast of Colombia.
The Spanish name, Aguacate, was first used
by Pedro de Cieza de Leon in a journal of his travels written in 1550; he noted
that at that time the avocado grew in Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. The
first mention of the avocado as growing in Mexico, was made by Francisco
Cervantes Salazar in 1554. He listed the avocado among fruits sold in the
market of Tenochtitlan - the name for Mexico City at that time.
The first mention of the avocado in an
English publication was made by an English merchant named Hawkes; his travels
in Mexico were published in 1589. Hawkes called this fruit the alvacata,
apparently a modification of the Spanish aguacate.
Over 300 years ago the first description of
the three groups or races of the avocado was given by Fray Bernardo Cobo. In
his 'Historia de Nuevo Mundo' Cobo described in 1653 the thin-skinned palto
with large fruit (today known as the West Indian type), the large round fruit
from Guatemala and the small palto from Mexico with thin, smooth skin. Early in
this century, horticulturists in California and Florida began to use the names
West Indian, Guatemalan and Mexican for the three races of avocado, not
realising that these terms had been used 300 years earlier by Cobo.
The name West Indian for one of the races of
avocado is a misnomer, as this type of avocado did not originate in the West
Indies, but was brought to the islands from the mainland, probably from either
coastal Mexico, Central America or Colombia. The avocado was first mentioned in
the British literature in 1657, described from Jamaica under the name avocatas.
The name avocado was first used by Sir Hans Sloane, in his catalogue of plants
in Jamaica, published in 1696. In this report Sloane refers to "The
avocado or alligator pear-tree; it grows in gardens and fields throughout
Jamaica". In 1725 Sloane published a more detailed history of Jamaica `and
described the avocado as "... one of the wholesomest fruits of these
countries ...".
In 1605 there was a report by Garcilaso de
la Vega, commenting that the avocado was cultivated at that time from Mexico to
Peru. This provides information on the origin of the name palta for avocado,
stating that an Inca warrior marched along the road to Peru. He conquered
another province called Palta (part of what is now Ecuador), from whence a
wholesome and delicious fruit called Palta was brought to the warm valley near
Cuzco, Peru. This conquest took place before the arrival of the Conquistadores,
between 1450 and 1475 and this is the only record of the history of the avocado
in pre-Colombian days.
It is evident from these miscellaneous
reports by Spanish Conquistadores that, at the time of the Spanish conquest,
avocados were grown from northern Mexico south through Central America into
north-western South America and south in the Andean region as far as Peru
(where the avocado had been introduced shortly before the conquest), as well as
into the Andean region of Venezuela.
Thus, the early history of the avocado in
the Americas provides a fascinating look at the early records of the occurrence
of avocado in the greater part of Latin America and the extensive development
of the avocado industry until today, more than 400 years later. There is a
significant production of this fruit world-wide, for example in Australia,
Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, South Africa
and in the United States (California and Florida, where beginnings of what is
at present a very significant industry occurred in the 19th century).
This is an abbreviated version of a longer
paper that will be published elsewhere.