Where and how exactly did Mexican tortillas originate?
The Mayans say that tortillas were invented by a peasant for a hungry king.
Tortillas date back to 10,000 BC where they were made of corn with dried kernel. This is in Aztec times where corn was their main source of food both from the cob and in recipes. They would ground corn into a dough called masa.
When Cortez arrived in Mexico (rather the territory that is now known as Mexico), he found this flat corn bread called "tlaxcalli." It was renamed to tortilla which means "little cake." Now there are mechanized was of mass producing tortillas, but the traditional process is where you ground corn into corn dough, and roll it into a ball. Then you pat it down by hand and put it on a griddle to cook on both sides. Southen mexico still uses this traditional way of making the tortilla.
Since the Pre-Columbian era (before major European influence reach the Americas), the tortilla has been an integral part of Mexican food and Central American cuisine. Tortillas are basically un-risen bread made with either maize or wheat flour. A tortilla chip is a made by cutting corn tortillas into slices and flying them with salt and oil. Considered a staple of Mexican cuisine, the tortilla chip was actually invented in the late 1940 in L.A.
