Eggplant in Puerto Rico

It's more prevalent than you might think.

Read the first, of this series.

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Eggplant was introduced to America through European colonization (Spanish and Portuguese). Over the years, naturally, the inhabitants of the Americas adapted this vegetable to their own cuisines.

In the case of Puerto Rico, the first colonists who settled were thousands and thousands of inhabitants of southern Spain, who had been immersed for centuries in the totally Arab world of the Al-Andalus, which is today the region of Andalusia.

Therefore, it is not surprising that in the first records of exports to Puerto Rico in customs, eggplant and its seeds are found, as well as “green olives, four barrels; dried fruits, half a bushel of almonds; cereals, six pipes of wheat flour. Also, ten jars of oil, an oily product used then not only for seasoning but also for frying on storage days.”

Not much else has been found about eggplant during the first two centuries (16th and 17th) of Spanish colonization in Puerto Rico owing to the lack of written documentation. The first printing press arrived to the archipelago in 1806, and the first Puerto Rican printed newspaper, La Gaceta, followed in 1823.