No matter how much money is offered, San Juan Bautista’s name
isn’t for sale.
No matter how much money is offered, San Juan Bautista’s name isn’t for sale.
“They damned well better not change the name,” said Terry Marburger, executive director of the San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce, who thought at first someone was playing a joke on her.
“They couldn’t possibly be serious,” she said.
But the offer to the Mission City to change its name to “Got Milk?” by the California Milk Processor Board was indeed serious.
The promotional stunt, part of the CMPB’s 10-year celebration of its successful “Got Milk?” campaign, is being offered to 24 small California towns with promises of cash, fame and a boost in tourism dollars.
“Sure go ahead, and change the name. Everything has a price,” said George Dias, a San Juan resident mocking the offer. “But honestly, they couldn’t afford us.”
San Juan Mayor Priscilla Hill laughed when she first heard of the offer.
“It will never happen,” said Hill, who received a “Got Milk?” T-shirt along with a letter from the CMPB offering the proposition.
“She kept the T-shirt and shredded the letter,” City Manager Larry Cain said. “For a community like San Juan Bautista, with the history we have, that would be ridiculous (to change the name).”
The milky idea apparently has everyone on the same page.
“It will never happen,” echoed Hollister resident Gary Gonzales, who called the idea “stupid” because San Juan already has an identity – Mission San Juan Bautista.
“They should have picked a place like Paicines,” Gonzales said.
Marburger said no one in town would agree to change the city’s name.
“We are known for the mission, which founded this town, so why in God’s name would we change our name?” she said. “Go change Hilmar, where the cheese factory is located. That’s dairy country.”
Changing the name of a town to promote a product is “advertising gone awry,” said Bill Weber, a tourist from Pennsylvania who was touring the mission and the surrounding historic buildings with his parents.
“I think the publicity could be national,” explained Jeff Manning, director of the CMPB, based in Berkeley. “What I want is to be so happy to pick up a newly printed California map and run my finger down a road and see Got Milk? California.”
The board also had considered the idea of getting the slogan on a postage stamp or into the dictionary, but realized those ideas probably wouldn’t pan out as well as renaming a town, he said.
San Juan Bautista was named after Saint John the Baptist when Spanish padres built a mission to convert Mutsun Indians here in 1797. Its quaint charm has inspired artists and authors over the years. Helen Hunt Jackson began her love-story novel “Ramona” during a visit to San Juan Bautista in 1883. She wrote that “At San Juan there lingers more of an atmosphere of the olden time than is to be found in any other place in California.”
Movie director Alfred Hitchcock set key scenes of his classic thriller “Vertigo” in the mission and historic park. And Hispanic playwright Luis Valdez established his nationally known El Teatro de Campesino in the community. The theater company has produced historically significant plays such as “Zoot Suit.”
Though San Juan residents and tourists alike agree the “Got Milk?” ads are funny, they also say the catch phrase just doesn’t belong in the Mission City.
“Changing the name is ridiculous,” said Mary Jo Weber, a Concord resident visiting San Juan. “The town would lose its ambiance, which it’s known for and why we come to visit.”
Changing the name of San Juan is more complicated than simply changing signs. The city is governed by three historic districts under state, federal and the religious district.
“‘The City of History’ is out there everywhere. It’s on our logos on all our literature,” Marburger said. “Why would we change for any amount of money? I don’t care how much money is involved in this.”
The CMPB’s offer also involved free school computers, a library expansion or a new playground in the million-dollar deal, which would include a national publicity campaign.
Besides San Juan Bautista, California towns being offered the name-change deal include Sand City, Colma, Colfax, Fort Jones and Biggs.
But one question remains unanswered.
“Who put our name on that list?” Marburger said.
