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LOCATION: 673–675 Guerrero St./22nd St. in the Mission

Persea americana

AVOCADO

The avocado is native to the Americas. Widely distributed throughout Central and South America, it ranges from eastern Mexico through Central America to the northern Andes. Human beings have appreciated the avocado for thousands of years. Avocado seeds dating to 7000 BC have been found at Mexican archaeological sites, and experts believe that the Aztecs cultivated the plant as early as 500 BC. (The seeds in archaeological deposits from this more recent time are larger, suggesting that natives were cultivating plants from seeds selected on the basis of fruit size.) The Aztecs had an interesting anthropomorphic association with this tree, as the common Spanish name for the tree is aguacate, from the Aztec ahuacatl, meaning “tree with testicles.”

Conquistador Hernán Cortés discovered the avocado in 1519, when he was the first known European to arrive in Mexico City. A few years later, the Spanish historian Oviedo wrote the first description of the avocado: “In the center of the fruit is a seed like a peeled chestnut. And between this and the rind is the part which is eaten, which is abundant, and is a paste similar to butter and of very good taste.” The Spanish soon introduced the avocado to the West Indies, the Canary Islands, and other possessions around the world.