The invention of fajitas cannot be attributed to a single person but rather to a tradition that originated with Mexican ranch workers, or vaqueros, in Texas in the 1930s and 1940s. These workers took less desirable cuts of beef, typically skirt steak, and cooked them over open flames, serving the meat with tortillas and vegetables as a portable meal. The word "fajita" comes from the Spanish "faja," meaning belt, referring to the cut of meat used. In terms of popularizing fajitas commercially, several key figures contributed in the 1960s and 1970s. Sonny Falcon, a meat market manager in Austin, Texas, operated one of the first commercial fajita stands at a Texas festival in 1969. Around the same time, Otilia Garza offered fajitas at her restaurant in South Texas, introducing the now-famous sizzling skillet presentation. María Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, known as "Mama Ninfa," popularized fajitas in Houston in the early 1970s by serving them in her restaurant as "tacos al la Ninfa," which evolved into the fajitas people know today. Therefore, fajitas originated as a practical meal among Mexican ranch workers, and its popularization in restaurants is credited to Sonny Falcon, Otilia Garza, and Mama Ninfa in Texas during the late 1960s and early 1970s.