And though many Argentines would proudly claim that it was their own grandmother who invented the sauce, some say that its roots go back to before Christopher Columbus came to the Americas in 1492. According to Daniel Balmaceda, an Argentinian historian and author, the word "chimichurri" comes from the Quechua, an Indigenous population who have lived in the Andean region of northern Argentina since well before the arrival of Europeans. "It was a generic term used to describe strong sauces to accompany and conserve different kinds of meat," Balmaceda said.