Ignacio "El Nacho" Anaya García was a Mexican maître d' and restaurateur, who is credited as the inventor of nachos. His nickname was Nacho, derived from the Spanish Ignacio, the Spanish version of Ignatius.
Life and career
Born Ignacio Anaya Garcia in Manuel Benavides, Chihuahua, Mexico on 15 August 1895, he worked at the Victory Club restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. According to the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, the first time he created nachos it was a result of Anaya not being able to find the chef when a group of wives from the Eagle Pass Army Airfield Base across the border arrived at his restaurant in 1943: "Not wanting to turn away the patrons, he put on his chef’s hat. He looked around the kitchen and threw together what he had, which consisted of neat canapes of tortilla chips, cheese, and jalapeno peppers". Anaya began serving the dish regularly at the restaurant, calling them "Nachos Especiales". He married Marie Antoinette Salinas, with whom he had 9 children. In 1960 Garcia had opened his own restaurant, called "El Nacho" in Eagle Pass, where he served T-bone steak, tampiqueñas, and enchiladas amongst other things. In a 1969 interview with the San Antonio Express-News he stated that he never made any money from the invention, saying: "The only man making money on nachos is the man selling the cheese and jalapeños."
Death and legacy
He died on 9 November 1975, leaving a son Ignacio Anaya, Jr who went into banking, and 5 other surviving children. Posthumously, he was honored with a bronze plaque in Piedras Negras. Also after his death, 21 October was declared as International Nacho Day. While nachos didn't become popular during his lifetime, Smithsonian Magazine ranked them as a sports stadium favorite in 1976, following the invention of a processed cheese sauce by Frank Liberto which was used to dip the chips in. Thereafter, nachos became popular worldwide, including after a 4 September 1978 NFL game where Howard Cosell popularized the term "nachos". As of the present, nachos come with an extremely wide variety of toppings, reflecting the enduring popularity of Ignacio's contribution. On 15 August 2019, Google honored him with a Doodle celebrating what would have been his 124th birthday.
