Some honest-to-goodness early primary sources from Mexico on bananas in
the New World ;

Diego de Landa wrote the best and earliest description of the Maya in
Yucatan after serving as bishop and burning most of the Maya manuscripts.

Landa, D. 1973 [1560] *Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan* Mexico: Porrua,
p. 130., I'll cite the edition in English.

Landa 1941 [1560]. *Landa's Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan*, trans and
ed. A.E. Tozzer. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Harvard University.

p. 199 "There are many bananas and the Spanish brought them for there were
none before." note 1081 by Tozzer identifies them as *Musa paradisiaca*
"plantain" and *M. sapientum* "banana'

Francisco Hernandez was sent by King Philip of Spain to write a definitive
Natural History in 1570. Hernandez spent 7 years and produced a massive
work with the extensive collaboration of native healers and artists, which
included plants from the Far East that had been imported to the New World.

Hernandez, Fco. 1959 [1577]. *Historia Natural de la Nueva Espana* Mexico:
National University of Mexico (UNAM). 2 vols

vol 1. p. 145 chapter CLXII of the second QUAUHXILOTL which others call
banana

"It is a medium size tree that grows in the hot parts of New Spain, called
recently by some *Musa*....
They say that this plant is not native to New Spain and that it was
brought from Africa or the East Indies where it is native. [BOM
translation].

vol 1. p. 153. chapter CCI Abaca

"The abaca is a type of banana similar to others but with numerous lenses
and a triangular fruit.... It comes from the Philippine Islands where
there are other species." [BOM translation].

In Volume VII of the complete works of Hernandez, which includes studies
and botanical identifications of the plants described. CLXXII is
identified as *Musa sapientum* banana and CCI as *Musa textilis*

Several points to notice. 1) the existence of a native name for a plant
does not automatically mean that the plant itself is native; 2) by 1560,
20 years after the final conquest of Yucatan there were "many" bananas
there. The data given for Brazil was 1585 and 1640's so there was plenty
of time for bananas to be imported and cultivated. 3) By 1570 a species of
banana that was imported from the Philippines was growing freely in
Mexico.

Bernard Ortiz de Montellano