The first record of quesadillas is from 1324, in a Catalan publication called Livre de Sent Soví. The quesadillas made with corn dough were prepared after the Conquest, when the colonizers saw that they could adapt their ‘quesadillas’ using the products of America.
The traditional dish was improvised with a corn tortilla with the local cheese. It was the missionaries’ food since it was the dish that lasted the longest without refrigeration. Being close to the milpas, it was associated with corn products.
They generally made them only with cheese until later they evolved with many more foods, especially in Mexico City. Such foods are:
Avocado and cheese.
Manchego cheese and mushrooms.
Of refried beans and founding cheese.
Sobrasada and havarti cheese.
Serrano ham and goat cheese.
Chicken with chorizo.
The quesadilla is not only known by a single name, at least not in Mexico City, it is known as dobladillas, garnachas, machetes or “quekas”.
In the southern and southeastern states of the country, the term quesadilla is reserved exclusively for stuffed cheese; the others are always called empanadas. Some of them are also called molotes, especially in Puebla, where they are stuffed with brains.
The quesadilla in Mexico, says the RAE, is defined as “corn tortilla stuffed with cheese or other ingredients that are hot.”