Corn tortilla

In North America, a corn tortilla or just tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flatbread, made from hominy, that is the whole kernels of maize treated with alkali to improve their nutrition in a process called nixtamalization. A simple dough made of ground, dried hominy, salt and water is then formed into flat discs and cooked on a very hot surface, generally an iron griddle called a comal.

A similar flatbread from South America, called an arepa, predates the arrival of Europeans to America, and was called tortilla by the Spanish from its resemblance to the traditional Spanish round, unleavened cakes and omelettes. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speakers call tortillas tlaxcalli. The successful conquest of the Aztec empire by the Spanish and the subsequent colonial empire ruled from the former Aztec capital have ensured that this variation become the prototypical tortilla for much of the Spanish-speaking world.

Source: Wikipedia