Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras were both established in the 1840s and remain sister cities roughly 170 years later. Over time, the two communities developed together, thanks to their shared mercantile and ranching trades. Today, Mexicans with a Border Crossing Card – or ‘Laser Visa’ – and Americans with a passport are still able to cross back and forth to visit family and friends. It was through one of these border crossings that the nacho was born.
In 1943, a group of American women whose husbands were stationed in Eagle Pass at the Fort Duncan military base crossed the bridge into Piedras Negras to go shopping. Afterwards, they decided to stay for dinner, but all the restaurants were closed except one: the Victory Club. The women asked the Victory Club’s maître d', Ignacio Anaya, if they could order food, but when Anaya went back into the kitchen, no-one was there. So instead, Anaya tossed together whatever he could find in the kitchen, famously telling the San Antonio Express-News in 1969 that, “I sliced a tortilla in four pieces, put some cheese and a slice of jalapeño on top and stuck it in the oven for a few minutes.”
Anaya took his invented snack out to the ladies, who asked him what it was called it. Since ‘Nacho’ is a common nickname for Ignacio in Latin American countries, he quickly responded, “Nacho’s Special!”
