A bit of history about the classic Dulce de Leche or Manjar
There are different stories about the origin of dulce de leche in the countries where its production is important. Both Argentina and Uruguay, as well as Paraguay and Chile, claim to have invented it; however, none of them has a “denomination of origin”.
This product receives different names depending on the country where it is consumed.
It is called Dulce de Leche in Argentina, Bolivia, Central America, Mexico, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay; Arequipe in Colombia and Venezuela; Fanguito in Cuba; Manjar in Chile and Ecuador, also Manjar Blanco in Peru, Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador and Doce de Leite in Brazil.
In 2003, Argentine chronicler Victor Ego Ducrot stated that dulce de leche originated in Chile, reaching Cuyo and then Tucumán, where it was used as a filling for alfajores.
In 2008, during the First Seminar on Agro-industrial Heritage in Mendoza, the Argentine architect Patricio Boyle reported that in 1620 the Colegio de Mendoza reported in its expense book the importation of several jars of ‘Chilean dulce de leche’: ‘Several jars of manjar, the famous dulce de leche of Chilean origin, were imported in the 17th century and travelled across the mountain range to the Colegio de Mendoza’.
In Chile there are records of its consumption since colonial times. Abbé Juan Ignacio Molina, at the end of the 18th century, describes recipes for making dulce de leche in use in Chile at that time.
https://www.odepa.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Manjar2015.pdf