Canned tortillas? Never seen them. Markets here have a section with all the different tortilla brands/sizes/flavors (i.e. corn v. flour v. spinach v. tomato). They all come and have always come in plastic bags my whole life. I’m 71.
Now, I had a friend who went to college back East in the early 70s, and he actually stooped to eating canned enchiladas. Shudder.
I wasnt saying hard shell tacos are not authentic Mexican food, altho they started here iirc, you can get them South of the Border, in mostly in places catering to tourists. I said that about Taco Bell. But yes, a soft small corn tortilla is very authentic.
Around here (Chicago), the corn ones also come in wax paper or very thin paper packaging. Ideally, they should be still warm to the touch from the morning tortilleria delivery.
In supermarket chain stores?
Local chains, yes.
ETA: Here’s an example of the wax paper one:
There’s a few supermarket chains that carry it around here.
I apologize for misinterpreting your post. In retrospect you were clearly referring to Taco Bell, not hard shells in general.
I haven’t either, but I also didn’t live through the 1930s. 
I was thinking of mega-conglomerate supermarkets. I can’t think of small chain markets near me. Independents, yes.
Did you mean canned tamales? Hormel makes them, they are a common item on our grocery shelves.
They are… well… not that bad.
No. Canned enchiladas.
No, I’m meaning an archaic method of packaging them that’s mentioned in the above article. I’d heard about them before, and they sound terrible, but they did apparently once exist.
Canned tamales are also not that good, either. I mean, they’re unlikely to kill you.
Gustavo Arrellano talks about canned tortillas in his book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.
The one I normally shop at is an independent chain, with 17 locations in the Chicago area. I would have to check at the Albertson’s affiliated store to see what versions of tortillas they have. They probably have the paper packaged version in addition to the plastic bagged ones, but I’m not sure if they’d still be warm or not. There’s also a Kroger-affiliated store I go to, but I don’t typically buy my tortillas there.
Dropped from a proper elevation they might, especially if still in the can.
I missed that the canned tortillas were historical. No wonder I’d never seen them.
Oh yes, if they’re prepared properly, you are completely doomed.
So, I went looking for them. Apparently Old El Paso made them at one time as well, but I found this:
My, these bizarre things lasted until the 1990s? I’m almost surprised I wasn’t ever offered them in a dare.
You can still buy that today (I will not post the image of the contents of that can as it’s not something that can be unseen):
The creepiest thing to me is canned bread, because it’s just so wrong.
The canned tortillas don’t really sound that bizarre to me. I mean, it’s just a tortilla packed in a can instead of plastic bag, right? Both are vacuum sealed, I assume. I’m guessing it’s not like packed in liquid or anything. Am I missing something? It just seems like not the most cost effective way to package tortillas, but I don’t otherwise see the problem.