The timeline of the burrito documents the use of the burrito, a food made with tortillas and filling found in Mexico and the United States. Hand-held take-out foods like the burrito have a long history. Before the Spanish colonization of the Americas, indigenous peoples were eating hand-held snack foods like corn on the cob, popcorn and pemmican. In Mexico, the Spanish observed Aztecs selling take-out foods like tamales, tortillas, and sauces in open marketplaces. The Pueblo people of the desert Southwest also made tortillas with beans and meat sauce fillings prepared much like the modern burrito we know today.

Aztec cuisine

See also: 16th century in North American history

Cuisine preceding the development of the modern taco, burrito, and enchilada was created by the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Aztec peoples of Mexico, who used tortillas to wrap foods, with fillings of chile sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, and avocados. Spanish missionaries like Bernardino de Sahag??n wrote about Aztec cuisine, describing the variety of tortillas and their preparation, noting that the Aztecs not only used corn in their tortillas, but also squash and amaranth, and that some varieties used turkey, eggs, or honey as a flavoring.

19th century

1840
Burrito created in 1840s American Southwest/Northwestern Mexico. Spiced meat wrapped in flour tortillas made popular by gold miners who worked with burros. Janey M. Rifkin in Hispanic Times Magazine claims this was the original source of meat.[3] If true, it would be out of desperation; burro meat is not considered palatable

Sept. 26: Febronio Ontiveros offers the first retail burrito in San Francisco at El Faro ("The Lighthouse"), and is credited with inventing the "super burrito" style leading to the early development of the San Francisco burrito: the addition of rice, sour cream and guacamole to the basic meat, bean and cheese burrito. Originally a corner grocery store located at 2399 Folsom Street, El Faro got its start when firemen from a nearby station requested sandwiches. Unable to make them, Ontiveros offered burritos instead. Large tortillas were unavailable in the early 1960s, so three six-inch tortillas were used to hold the filling, and sold for one US dollar.

2002
University of Texas Press publishes Daniel D. Arreola's Tejano South Texas, a cultural geography of Tejano South Texas. The book delineates the South Texas Mexican food region using a "taco-burrito" and "taco-barbecue" line of demarcation. To the west of this line, Mexican food served in a flour tortilla is often called a burrito, due to the influence of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. To the south and east of this line, the same food may be simply called a taco, showing a "Texas Mexican" influence. To the north, the food gives way to barbecue sandwiches reflecting the influx of European, Southern Anglo, and African Americans.

2003
Charles Hodgkins begins gathering data from 170 taquerias in San Francisco for Burritoeater.com

2005
Burritophile.com launches
Freebirds World Burrito (TX) starts online orders
May: A Clovis, New Mexico Middle school student creates a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalape??os for an extra-credit assignment project. The large, foil-wrapped burrito is mistaken as a weapon, and armed police officers are sent in, closing down streets and locking down the school.

Jul: Rubio's (CA) Lobster Burrito lawsuit. Rubio's is accused of selling a "lobster burrito" that contains langostino meat from the squat lobster, an edible crustacean but not a lobster, raising questions about labeling lobster meat.

2006
Jan: The Burrito Project begins in Los Angeles, California, feeding burritos to the homeless.[19] In November, the project takes off on MySpace and spreads around the world, and in early 2007, the group is awarded a $10,000 MySpace Impact Award for serving "as an instrument of community action on behalf of the needy."

Mar:Chipotle Mexican Grill starts "Don't Stand in Line " online burrito ordering system

Jun: Ryan Daniel Goff gets prison term for Taco Bell burrito extortion"

Jul 29: Moe's Southwest Grill (FL) starts annual competitive burrito eating contest

Rosemary Gonzales arrested for smuggling drugs inside Taco Bell burrito
Oct. 30: After hearing expert testimony, Massachusetts judge rules that a burrito is not a sandwich

2007
Jan: In honor of Elvis Presley, Taco Villa offers peanut butter and banana burritos.
Jul: Charles Hodgkins completes his 495th burrito review
Sept. 22: Competitive eater Tim "Eater X" Janus eats 10.75 burritos in 12 minutes, beating out Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas and winning US$3,000 at the Costa Vida World Burrito Eating Championship in South Portland, Maine. Costa Vida's "Big Kahuna" burritos weighed 18 ounces, consisting of rice, beans, cheese and sweet pork in a flour tortilla. Eric "Badlands" Booker previously held the world record (15 burritos in eight minutes) but did not return to defend his title.