A taco (US: /ˈtɑːkoʊ/, UK: /ˈtækoʊ/, Spanish: [ˈtako]) is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling.

[7] They can be served on their own as tapas or street food, or can be added to other dishes such as salmorejo, omelettes, stews, empanadas, or melón con jamón [es].

[12] Furthermore, dishes analogous to the taco were known to have existed in Pre-Columbian society—for example, the Nahuatl word tlaxcalli (a type of corn tortilla).

[13] Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal which Hernán Cortés arranged for his captains in Coyoacán.

Another mention of the word taco comes from the novel —El hombre de la situación (1861)— by Mexican writer Manuel Payno:[17] “They surrounded the father's bed, and he, putting a pillow on his legs, which served as a table, began to give the example, and a pleasant gathering was formed, which was completed by the mother, who always entered last, waving with one hand (from right to left) a large cup of white atole, while with the other, she carried right to her mouth, a tortilla taco filled with a spread of red chile.

These instances disprove the theory that the first mention of the word "taco" in Mexico was in the 1891 novel Los bandidos de Río Frío by Manuel Payno.

This type of taco is typically served as a crisp-fried corn tortilla filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, and sometimes tomato, onion, salsa, sour cream, and avocado or guacamole.

[36] The first cookbook to provide a recipe for the hard-shell taco was The Good Life: New Mexican food, written by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert and published in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1949.

[36] Over the next few years, Bell owned and operated a number of restaurants in southern California including four called El Taco.

[41]The breakfast taco, found in Tex-Mex cuisine, is a soft corn or flour tortilla filled with meat, eggs, or cheese, which can also contain other ingredients.

[43] However, food writer and OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano responded that such a statement reflects a common trend of "whitewashed" foodways reporting, noting that predominantly Hispanic San Antonio, Texas, "never had to brag about its breakfast taco love—folks there just call it 'breakfast'".

It was made from ingredients given to them by the government to supplement their diet since the region could not support growing the agricultural commodities that had been previously used.