The popular corn chip known as Fritos first originated in San Antonio in 1932.

The Chisme is a new culture series looking at San Antonio’s fun facts, useless trivia, and, of course, local chisme of varying degrees.

Snacks are part of San Antonio culture, with hot and sour combinations like chamoy pickles and cool and smooth treats like ice cream raspas being beloved staples in the city. It turns out that a popular ingredient part of local snack favorites has some roots in San Antonio.

Part of San Antonio’s food culture is none other than Fritos, the popular chip and star of the crunchy classic that is the Frito pie. The Texas State Historical Association can confirm that Fritos were invented in San Antonio in 1932. Credit is given to the Doolin family, which owned the Highland Park Confectionary. Charles Elmer Doolin wanted to add a “salty snack” to the company’s line of products and responded to an ad in the San Antonio Express. A Oaxacan man named Gustavo Olguin was selling an original recipe for “fried corn chips” made from corn masa using a potato ricer, along with the production supplies and retail accounts.

Gustavo Olguin placed this ad on page 5 of the San Antonio Express classifieds on July 10, 1932. C.E. Doolin bought the corn chips business for $100.

Doolin, who graduated from Brackenridge High School, took Olguin up on his offer and bought the small business for $100. Doolin actually borrowed most of the money from his mother, Daisy Dean Stephenson Doolin, who sold her wedding ring to loan the cash. She was also the one to come up with the Frito pie recipe, which was used as a way to market the chips.

He then began making the chips in his parents’ house, who both helped in the production line. His brother also helped with the venture. The Doolins began selling Fritos that same year, operating the Frito Corporation from a garage behind the family’s home at 1416 Roosevelt Ave., located just blocks away from where Lala’s Gorditas stands today. The chips were an immediate success given that the Frito Corporation opened a number of plants in the following years and had licensed franchises growing across the country. Texas, however, was home to the “Frito farms” where the Doolins grew crops that were used in the company’s products.

One of Frito Corporation’s franchises included H.W. Lay and Company, which the company later merged with to become Frito-Lay. Just a few years later in 1965, Frito-Lay merged with Pepsi-Cola Company to be known as PepsiCo. Today, the snack and soft drink conglomerate, which generates billions in sales, makes other San Antonio favorites, like Hot Cheetos and bean dip.

Though San Antonio and even Texas can take pride in Fritos’ ties to the Alamo City, it’s clear that the company has grown majorly and beyond the Lone Star State since the chips were first put on the market 90 years ago. San Antonio may not be home to the now mega sized company anymore, but it’s obvious that the city’s love for snacks had some influence on the salty, crunchy chip that foodies know and love today.