ISO: La Bamba Style Hot Sauce

Hello all. I have been checking this thread every month or two for over 10 years. I'm hoping a reply may rekindle some interest. I have been searching for this recipe off & on for 31 years.

I went to UIUC in 1990, where the original La Bamba was, and at the time had only been open about 3 years. Prior to that(in the 80s), I regularly went to the most notorious of the few places that inspired La Bamba, named El Farol off I-55 just outside of Chicago around California & Archer("Burrito", "Taco", and "RC" was all you could order. Don't even think about making special requests or substitutions. lol) When I moved out of state in 1992 is when my search for this recipe started. I ended up in the military and was trying every salsa that was red or reddish everywhere I went, in hopes it would be similar. After I got out of the military, I ended up at THE Ohio State University, where luckily, there was a La Bamba until 2012(to my understanding, they had to close the restaurant to avoid a lawsuit about offering free burritos with credit card applications.) In 2012, my search for this recipe intensified for obvious reasons. Before they closed, I told everyone at the OSU La Bamba my story in hopes they might throw me a bone about certain ingredients in the salsa. They all laughed at me.

The only lulls in my search through the years were due to "adulting" getting in the way with priorities. In 2020, I spent a lot of time reading every salsa recipe, blog post, chile guide, and anything else on the internet in hopes I might find a new direction to take, as all my attempts to recreate the salsa via experimentation have failed.

Here is what I'm sure of:

1) There is cilantro in the salsa.

Here is what I'm sort-of sure of:

1) I think the salsa is at least part tomatillos, since it wasn't always very-red. I assume the recipe was static, as how long they cooked it at the end would affect the color if using tomatillos.

2) While the salsa was not the same, the closest I have ever gotten experimenting with chiles was fresh serranos combined with dried chile de arbols, although a 2nd attempt with same recipe was different(I assume the fresh serranos were the culprit.)

Here is what reliable experts have impressed upon me:

1) Restaurants use canned tomatoes in salsa because of the volume it requires. La Bamba claimed to use only fresh ingredients, but considering how they used fresh tomatoes in the menu-type recipes, they most likely used canned tomatoes for at least part of the salsa, especially with how freely they handed out the salsa.

2) The (flavor)consistency of their salsa indicates using dried chiles, as fresh chiles can vary so much depending storage and time.

3) Restaurants usually cook any salsas made in bulk, because of health dept. laws for food prep and how long you can refrigerate unused foods depending on how they were prepared.

Again, I hope my reply rekindles some interest.