Chicken steak or shrimp fajitas have to be one of my favorite Mexican foods and one of the most beloved Mexican foods, right alongside tortilla soup, carne asada, carnitas, tacos, burritos and enchiladas so I was surprised to find that fajitas don't come from Mexico at all!  Fajitas originated in Texas in the 1930s when vaqueros (Mexican cowboys) cooked skirt steak -  then throwaway butcher meat- over the campfire.  In fact, Fajita has its roots in Tex Mex -  the word faja is Spanish for "strip," or "belt," and "ita" means little describing the little strips of meat.  (Austin Chronicle) It wasn't until the 1980s that what we know as Steak and Chicken Fajitas served with sizzling onions and peppers alongside tortillas rice and beans were popularized by numerous restaurants in Texas.  Before that, fajitas as we know them, where relatively unknown (except as a cut of meat)  even in Mexican food rich states as California and Arizona!  Mind blown.