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Boca Chica Beach will remain Boca Chica Beach.
That’s the decision of the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which held a hearing in Washington D.C. Thursday regarding a Mississippi resident’s petition to officially change the name of at least some of the beach to “Cyber Beach.”
The answer was no.
The petitioner was a professed Cybertruck owner/SpaceX fan from Mississippi who in the past has gathered with other Cybertruck owners near the Starship launch site on a piece of Boca Chica the group began calling Cyber Beach.
Once word got out about the proposal and pending hearing, it generated a tidal wave of opposition from the public as well as local, state and federal elected officials, who stated their views clearly to members of the committee.
Even the city of Starbase issued a statement in opposition to the name change.
Among the elected officials to weigh in most recently were U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville, who sent a letter to the committee Thursday stating that his office and the public had been “blindsided by the proposal” and that the lack of transparency had not given community members adequate time to respond.
“I am disappointed to see a federal entity not notify federal representatives of activity happening in their district,” he wrote, urging the committee to reject the proposed change.
State Rep. Erin Gamez had sent a letter to the committee the day before, noting that U.S. government records have identified it as Boca Chica Beach at least since 1936. In addition to the unnecessary practical and financial complications the name change would entail, Boca Chica is “part of the cultural and historical identity of our community, and that identity deserves to be preserved,” she wrote.
At the very least, the commission should postpone the hearing until a proper public response could be mounted, Gamez wrote.
But the storm had passed by early Thursday afternoon, when she released a Facebook video with the news that Cyber Beach had been rejected.
“You did it!” Gamez posted. “This victory for South Texas would not have been possible without everyone who took the time to speak up, submit comments and share posts raise awareness about the proposed change. Together, we showed that when a community comes together and makes its voice heard, we can influence government decisions and protect the places that matter to us.”
Her office said the committee reported receiving approximately 2,780 emails opposing the name change.
“I think everybody got a crash course in some civics,” Gamez told The Brownsville Herald. “If you didn’t know that the Department of the Interior had committees that could do this, we all found out real quick. … But it absolutely can happen, and if we’re not watching things like this, that’s how those things happen. … I’m so pleased to see this is a huge unifier of an issue.”