Burritos are often contrasted with similar dishes, such as tacos, in which a small hand-sized tortilla is folded in half around the ingredients rather than wrapped and sealed, or with enchiladas, which use corn masa tortillas, and are covered in a savory sauce, to be eaten with a fork and knife. The word burrito means “mexican burrito bowl donkey” in Spanish, the diminutive form of burro, or “donkey”. Before the development of the modern burrito, the Maya civilization of Mexico used corn tortillas as early as 1500 B. The precise origin of the modern burrito is not known.

Some have speculated that it may have originated with vaqueros, the cowboys of northern Mexico in the 19th century. Another origin story tells of Ciudad Juárez in the 1940s, where a street food vendor created the tortilla-wrapped food to sell to poor children at a state-run middle school. The vendor would call the children his “burritos”, because burro is a colloquial term for a dunce or dullard. Eventually, the somewhat derogatory but endearing term for the children was transferred to the food that they ate. In 1923, Alejandro Borquez opened the Sonora Cafe in Los Angeles that later changed its name to El Cholo Spanish Cafe. Burritos first appeared on American restaurant menus at the El Cholo Spanish Cafe in Los Angeles during the 1930s.