| Nationalities of fruits |
By Prof. Fabio Cupul - August 2005
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 Fruits are an important part of the majority of the shopping lists of the housewives that visit the fresh fruit markets and the supermarkets. For us it is something very natural to observe lemons next to tomatoes, avocados in the middle of oranges and water melons or mangos and bananas sharing the same shelf. However not all the fruits have always shared the same areas of territorial distribution, this was only achieved after the merchants, the explorers and the conquerors had colonized other countries and had seduced the most demanding palates of millions of people around the world.
In addition to the aforementioned, the ample distribution obtained by fruits was achieved thanks to the domestication which occurred when humans evolved from primitive hunter-collectors to pastoralist farmers, a process that took place 6000 to 12000 years ago. Before this time people surely invested a great part of their life in classifying those plants that were useful to them according to their taste and texture, even though it is also probable that many died when consuming the toxic fruits of the plants.
Nowadays human societies have invested talent, patience and money in order to provoke that plants and their fruits grow and produce much more than what they naturally could do. On one hand fertilizers are applied in order to accelerate growth, certain chemicals are applied in order to prevent the attack of blights or use is made of controversial genetically modified organisms or of transgenic organisms.
However in this occasion I will not touch the topic of agriculture and the very fashionable transgenic food, but rather the topic of the curious interaction and convergence of fruits from different parts of the world in the fruit and vegetable section of modern supermarkets.
 First of all we have the avocado, which is an essential element in Mexican food, but it has an onerous taste if you wish to acquire it in a supermarket in the United Stated of America. The origin of the avocado lies in the mountain forests of tropical America. The name comes from the Aztec word "ahuacatl" which refers to the form of the fruit resembling a testicle. It is known that its cultivation began approximately 8000 years ago.
For its part the pineapple is native to the tropical regions of Brazil. It has been cultivated since many years, but it was not until the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors that the first varieties were developed. These conquerors were the ones that let the old world know about the exquisite taste of this fruit. It was until the year 1513 that the first painting of a pineapple was obtained, which was sent to the Spanish king Fernando by Oviedo. Likewise its intense cultivation was started on the island of Madagascar in the year 1548 and in India in 1590. From there on the production was extended towards all the tropical areas of the planet.
 Mangos are one of the most important tropical fruits. They compare in their magnitude with apple crops in mild climate areas. The origin of the mango is established in the center of Burma (today's Myanmar) and on the slopes of the Himalaya in eastern India. Its domestication happened in this last mentioned country 4000 years ago. During their discovery journeys the Portuguese introduced the mango tree from western Africa up to Brazil. On the other hand the Spaniards transported the seeds from the Philippines up to Mexico. To conclude we have the orange which is native to China. There is a record stating that its cultivation was developed in this region 2000 years before Christ. Its introduction to Europe happened between the years 1000 and 1200.
Prof. Fabio German Cupul Magaña
Email: fcupul@pv.udg.mx
The publication of this article is possible thanks to the authorization of Prof. Fabio German Cupul Magaña, author of the books "Tales of natural history in Vallarta - University of Guadalajara" (Relatos de la historia natural vallartense - Universidad de Guadalajara) and "Natural environment: Selection of essays of scientific disclosure - Coastal University Center of the University of Guadalajara". (Ambiente natural: Selección de ensayos de divulgación científica - Centro Universitario de La Costa Universidad de Guadalajara.
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