Department of Ethnic Studies

How did we get here? What is the history of the land UCSD sits on? A look into UC San Diego’s land tenure and history, this work seeks to answer these questions. Tracing back the university’s land history reveals a prominent Kumeyaay village by the name of Ystagua alongside three military bases, two of which make up the land the university is now on. Further revealed are the various ways that the university erases its Indigenous past through the romanticization of San Diego’s Spanish past and the celebration of UCSD’s military history, as seen through the official university history book An Improbable Venture and the original site considerations. This thesis analyzes the processes through which Kumeyaay land is marked for national sacrifice, leaving a legacy of military and navy usage that continues until now–a celebration of militarism which attempts to erase UCSD’s Kumeyaay past.