Piquíns were part of the prehistoric migration of Capsicum annuum from a nuclear area in southern Brazil or Boliva north to Central America and Mexico. (fieryfoodscentral.com)
Updated 2/19/2016 Background The species Capsicum chinense spread throughout the Caribbean basin in prehistoric times, carried by indigenous people via boat from the Amazon basin to what is now Venezuela to Trinidad, and then through the Lesser Antilles to the Greater Antilles, and finally... (fieryfoodscentral.com)
The fortuitous finding of Capsicum species in these pots provides the earliest evidence of chili consumption in well - dated Mesoamerican archaeological contexts. (journals.plos.org)