Hector Peralta

Héctor Peralta is a PhD student in the American Studies department. His research examines the intersections between the history of the California-Baja California borderlands, public education, and the racial geographies of San Diego and Tijuana, with a focus on indigeneity and post-9/11 migrations. He is currently exploring how systems of Kumeyaay cultural education function differently across the two nation-states of the U.S. and Mexico. He is also interested in how the binational development of irrigation systems across the Californias influenced the dispossession and displacement of Kumeyaay communities, such as the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.

Héctor earned his B.A. from Brown University in 2016, where he completed a double-concentration in Ethnic Studies and Education Studies-Human Development. His undergraduate thesis explored how Mexican and Mexican American students in San Diego-Tijuana region carved out community spaces for the development of critical ethnic studies and increased access to public education.

Héctor is a transfronterizo Mexican American first-generation college student who grew up in El Centro, CA; Mexicali, BC, MX; and El Cajon, CA