ABSTRACT
This book will discuss how California created the image of the avocado that we know today; one of health and vitality. But the fruit took a long time to reach California and had a rich history before. The fruit originated in Mexico and was deeply connected to the food systems of the Meso-American people. However, the arrival of the conquistadors and the subsequent European colonists into the region permanently changed the consumption of the fruit once they discovered it. It became increasingly disconnected from local food systems and co-opted by the colonial world, gracing the tables of both the highest and lowest in society. It became the food of both enslaved peoples and future presidents. The global exchange facilitated by the colonial period transferred the fruit across the world, and ultimately, it became globalised as the Old World collided with the New World. Eventually, at the dawn of the 20th century, it reached California where its modern history was waiting to be written.
