Rice appears to have become common in the eastern Mediterranean in the 1st millennium AD (it was known earlier, but was not common, and may have been imported from Mesopotamia). Rice cultivation spread around the Mediterranean from Egypt, and was brought to Spain by the Arabs (or at, while Spain was under Arab rule).

Rice reached the New World via two main means. First, it was introduced by Spanish colonists. This was the origin of Mexican rice cultivation; it was probably introduced in the 1520s. Second, African rice was brought to Brazil and the USA by African slaves. African rice was domesticated independently of Asian rice, and is a different species (Oryza glaberrima rather than the Asian Oryza sativa).

Wild rice, grown in North America, is unrelated (Zizania palustris).

Rice and beans predates the meeting of Spanish rice and Mexican beans. Rice with black-eyed beans is an old traditional dish in West Africa (the traditional rice-growing area of sub-Saharan Africa), and rice and broad beans (fava beans) is an old dish in Iran and around the Mediterranean. Pigeon peas, domesticated in India in the 2nd millennium BC if not earlier, are a common bean in rice and beans today, and were probably cooked in such a manner in India long ago. The use of Mexican beans for rice and beans would have been an obvious thing to try in Mexico, and thus a new version of a classic dish was born.