I read today that Rebecca Webb Carranza recently died at the age of ninety-eight. I’d never heard of her, but I was most appreciative of her great invention. Here’s why: Rebecca Webb Carranza created the tortilla chip.

Or, at least, she sort of invented the tortilla chip, about which more very soon.

Carranza ran the El Zarape Tortilla Factory, one of the first business endeavors to automate tortilla production. Some of the concoctions coming off the assembly line were too misshapen to be commercially viable, so Carranza cut the aborted tortillas into triangles, fried them, and then ...

Et voilà! The tortilla chip!

For historical accuracy, one of Carranza’s sons noted that she may not have actually invented the tortilla chip, but she was the first person to make them a commercially viable commodity.

And so, for the rest of my days, I shall think of Carranza every time a gaze across a sea of guacamole.

Although this has nothing to do with the story, I nevertheless feel obliged to mention that she never got along with Pancho Villa (the hombre, not the taqueria).