Chu 1!
Timothy Chu
AMST 301
Fall 2014
Professor Simeon Man
TA: Sarah Fong
December 3, 2014
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The American Western Frontier has always been a frontier of discovery, civilization, and
savagery. San Diego, known as the “birthplace of California,” is much more than sunny skies and
beautiful beaches. Taking a closer look at the city’s landscape, Downtown San Diego reveals a
culture of Spanish rule over the land. Although much of the evidence of this reign has been
covered by malls, streets, and highways, the lasting landscape preserves history through the
names of the city, streets, and locations. In specific, the Spanish mission system played a key role
in the development as the city. Fragments of this history can be found all over the city from the
San Diego Padres, the city’s baseball team, to the roads surrounding Petco Park, the Padres’
home stadium. Friars Road and San Diego Mission Road may just be street names to
unsuspecting citizens, but they reveal the deeper history of San Diego’s storied culture that finds
its roots in Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in the Las Californias
Province. Because of its title as the “birthplace of California,” San Diego plays a key role in the
history of the American West not only because it is the first city of one of the United States’
largest states, but also in its landscape which reflects the prevailing view of history’s winners.
From a combination of historical texts in addition to the city’s landscape, we can evidently see
that the dehumanization of native peoples at the hands of the Spanish who failed to recognize
these native’s deep, long-lasting culture; a trend that is consistent with the history of the West as
Chu 2!
a frontier of violence and benevolence marked by the exploitation of native peoples for land and
resources.
First and foremost, the San Diego Mission plays a major role in the culture of San Diego
even to this day. Its...