History of Tacos Timeline

One of the more popular theories about the advent of the taco holds that it is much more recent than ancient origins suggest: the taco was invented by silver miners in Mexico during the 18th century. According to this theory, the miners used the word 'taco,' which referred to the charges of gunpowder wrapped in paper used to extract ore, and applied it to the tortilla-wrapped foods they ate.

Image source: Taco

One of the oldest mentions of the term taco comes from the 1836 cookbook Nuevo y sencillo arte de cocina, reposteria y refrescos by Antonia Carrillo. In a recipe for a rolled pork loin (lomo de cerdo enrollado), she instructs readers to roll the loin like they would a 'taco de tortilla,' or tortilla taco, marking a significant early written reference to the term.

An early mention of the word taco appears in El hombre de la situación (1861) by Mexican writer Manuel Payno. In one passage, the mother of a family carries a tortilla taco filled with a spread of red chile to her mouth while waving a large cup of white atole, illustrating that tacos were part of everyday Mexican domestic life by the mid-19th century.

Image source: Manuel Payno

It has often been claimed that the first mention of the word 'taco' in Mexico was in Manuel Payno's 1891 novel Los bandidos de Río Frío. However, earlier instances such as Antonia Carrillo's 1836 cookbook and Payno's own 1861 novel El hombre de la situación disprove this claim, showing the term was in use decades before.

Beginning in the early part of the twentieth century, various types of tacos became popular in the United States, especially in Texas and California, but also elsewhere. This growing popularity laid the groundwork for tacos becoming a mainstream American food in the decades that followed.

Birria, a meat stew originating in the Mexican state of Jalisco that would later become famous as a taco filling, was mentioned in a 1925 article in the El Paso Herald. This early US media reference documents how the dish had spread north across the border and entered American public awareness.

Image source: Birria

The first US-published cookbook to provide a recipe for a hard-shell taco was The Good Life: New Mexican food by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, published in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1949. This publication helped popularize the hard-shell taco, a style that became emblematic of Tex-Mex cuisine in the United States.

Image source: Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert

After selling his El Taco restaurants to his partner, Glen Bell built the first Taco Bell restaurant in Downey, California in 1962. This marked the birth of what would become one of the largest fast-food chains in the world, bringing Mexican-inspired food to mass audiences across the country.

Image source: Taco Bell

Two years after opening the first Taco Bell, Glen Bell began selling franchises in 1964, and by 1967 the chain had grown to 100 locations. This rapid expansion demonstrated the immense commercial appeal of tacos in American fast food and cemented Taco Bell's place in popular culture.

In 2018, the taqueria El Remedio in San Antonio, Texas began offering birria de res tacos in their current form, helping spark the birria taco craze in Texas. These cheesy, consommé-dipped beef birria tacos became a viral sensation and spread rapidly across the United States.