No single person “created” tacos; they developed over time from Indigenous food traditions in what is now Mexico. Corn tortillas filled with ingredients like fish and meats were already eaten in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, and the word “taco” likely became common among silver miners in the 18th century to describe their portable tortilla meals.

Early origins

Indigenous peoples in central Mexico used soft corn tortillas as edible wrappers for foods such as small fish and cooked organs, a practice that predates Spanish arrival. These early tortilla‑plus‑filling combinations are considered the ancestors of modern tacos.

Name and miners’ tacos

Historians point to Mexican silver miners in the 18th century as key to the modern idea and name of the taco, using tortillas wrapped around spicy fillings as easy, handheld meals called “tacos de minero” (miners’ tacos). The term “taco” may also be linked to a miners’ word for paper-wrapped gunpowder charges, which influenced how the food was named.

Modern hard-shell taco

The hard U-shaped taco shell and fast-food style taco were developed much later in the 20th century, with patents for taco-shell machinery filed in the 1940s by Mexican restaurateurs. Fast-food chains like Taco Bell then popularized this Americanized hard-shell version in the 1950s–60s, but even that builds on much older Mexican taco traditions.