National Tortilla Chip Day in USA

A tortilla chip is a snack food made from corn tortillas, which are cut into triangles and then fried or baked (alternatively they may be discs pressed out of corn masa then fried or baked). The word tortilla comes from the Latin root for twisted bread. This developed into the Spanish word “torta” meaning cake appended with “illa” meaning little.

While many have credited Rebecca Webb Carranza as the inventor and innovator of the tortilla chip, the Tamalina Milling Company claims its family's tortilla company made the famous corn chips long before that, Arellano wrote in Taco USA. The first bag of tortilla chips sold for 10 cents.

Although first mass-produced commercially in the U.S. in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, tortilla chips grew out of Mexican cuisine, where similar items were well known, such as totopos and tostadas.