Our Stories
UCSD Pursing a Vision By Joseph Martinez President-Principal Architect Martinez + Cutri Corporation
Although the plan was never completely adopted, BSU and MEChA students who created community perspectives for the Lumumba-Zapata College went on to have amazing academic and professional careers: medical doctors, distinguished educators, a vice chancellor, attorneys, a world-renowned civil rights activist, feminist, and one architect who changed San Diego’s skyline. In 1993, Third College was renamed Thurgood Marshall College in recognition of the Supreme Court Justice. As the first in my family to attend college, the fear of failing was a great motivator. I was a double major, mathematics and visual arts, graduating from UCSD in 1971. At Harvard University’s Graduate of School Design, I was the first Chicano in 1975 to earn the Master of Architecture Degree in the 20 th century. Focusing on issues of “el movimiento” such as self-determination, cultural identity, upward mobility, and civic involvement provided me inner strength. I design award-winning educational institutions and resorts throughout the Southwest, Mexico and San Diego—among them:
Growing up in Southeast San Diego during the early 1960s and graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1966, provided a unique basis for my professional and cultural endeavors. That same year, I was one of five Chicano students admitted to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where total enrollment was under 1,000 and fewer than 25 people of color were enrolled. The turbulent 1960s saw demonstrations against the nation’s status quo, which led to the formation of campus student organizations like Students for a Democratic Society, Black Student Union (BSU), and Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), which I co-founded. By 1968, UCSD had opened its second college, named after naturalist John Muir, and was in the process of opening a third college, with plans to offer “a few ethnic study courses.” But BSU and MEChA created a unified vision for the new college, Lumumba-Zapata. Our goal was a singular emphasis: People of Color. Not a department, nor a “few courses.” We proposed a college with curricula focusing on issues affecting San Diego’s minority communities with a diverse, progressive faculty and staff to be governed by an independent board of directors.
Joseph Martinez (Photo courtesy Joseph Martinez Archives)
César E. Chávez College Campus, Barrio Logan; Grand Hyatt Regency Hotel, Embarcadero; and, Bosque de la Aracarias, Mexico To this day, it thrills me to continue to advocate for higher education for our community. Adelante!
Joseph Martinez – 1994 (Photo courtesy of Latino Legacy Foundation)
Joseph Martinez (Photo courtesy of Special Collections of Archives, UC San DIego)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 4 – The Rise & Legacy of the Chicano Movement
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