Mangoes in Panama: Season, History, and Tradition

Although mango is not native to the Americas, it is difficult not to associate this delicious fruit with Panamanian tradition. Every year, as the rains begin, it becomes impossible to ignore trees heavy with fruit—or even country roads blanketed with so much mango that it often goes unharvested and wasted.

In my childhood memories, I do not recall ever buying a mango, nor do I remember my mother buying one. They were always there: in my grandmother’s backyard, at the neighbor’s house, on the tree growing by the river, or sent by a family friend in a care package from the countryside. In short, mango is so prevalent and abundant in Panama that it almost feels as though it originated here.

The mango arrived from very far away though—India, to be exact—making a brief stop in the Caribbean before appearing in Panama for the first time at the beginning of the 19th century.

The story goes (according to research by historian Alfredo Castillero Calvo) that it was an Italian resident of Panama City who first planted mango trees brought from Jamaica, and that by 1804 he already had 300 trees. It is remarkable that in barely 200 years, the mango spread so thoroughly that it came to feel as if it had always belonged here.