Wheat and the baking culture were introduced to America by the Spanish, so it is not uncommon to see that many classic Mexican breads, such as cemita, pan bazo or telera, have their respective counterparts in Spain.

[18][19] At first, the breads produced in Mexico were crude and poorly developed doughs, but over time, the country strengthened its baking tradition by making increasingly refined pieces.

[21] A frequently repeated myth explains that the Mexican bread of the dead dates back to the pre-Hispanic custom of human sacrifice: "A maiden was offered to the gods, and they placed her still beating heart in a pot with amaranth, they had to bite it as a symbol of gratitude".

In the words of José Luis Curiel Monteagudo: "Eating the dead is a true pleasure for the Mexican, it is considered the anthropophagy of bread and sugar.

According to the chronicles of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, the papalotlaxcalli was literally a butterfly (papalotl)-shaped tortilla (tlaxcalli) that was offered to women who died in childbirth or Cihuapipiltin.

However, the very composition of the ingredients of the pan de muerto reveals its origin: wheat, cane sugar, cow's milk and butter, eggs and orange aroma.

According to Dr. Malvido (1999), although much weight has been given to pre-Hispanic ideas in the celebration of the Day of the Dead, the influence that the Spanish culture and Catholic religion has exerted in colonial Mexico is also very important.

According to this author, in an essay published by the National Institute of Anthropology and History: "continuing to think that [the pan de muerto] is a tradition of pre-Hispanic origin means that we did not understand anything, since it is profoundly Roman".

In this regard, Stanley Brandes, historian and anthropologist of Mexican culture (and in particular of the Day of the Dead), comments: To the question of European vs indigenous origins, there can be no simple resolution until more extensive colonial sources come to light.

The existence of special breads and sugar based sweets, the custom of placing these and other food substances on gravesites and altars, and the practice of begging and other distributive mechanisms all derive from Spain.

A 2019 Japanese exhibition at the National Museum of Ethnology on Mexican folk art, for example, included a baking demonstration and samples of the bread for visitors.

[32] As a form of cultural outreach and collaboration with local communities, some American museums and institutions create public altars that include pan de muerto.

[36] While the bread has always been an expression of popular religious celebrations, by the late 2010s, pan de muerto had become more known through several American pop culture representations.