for no particular reason as far as Mexican-inspired food is concerned

Nah dude it’s a really more clever than that, first image when you look up “california missions” is:

https://www.missionscalifornia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/co01-san-diego-church.jpg

Those arches have the exact kind of bell in them that Taco Bell uses in their logo, and you can even still find TBs designed to LOOK like the missions, solidifying the connection even more.

So yeah it’s his last name, but they actuslly tied it to Mexican history