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Systematic content analysis of personal documents is used to assess the course of personality development in one adolescent female exposed to traumatic historical and personal events, as well as more normative life changes. Seventy-one letters written by a young girl to her former teacher over a 9-year period comprise the data for this study. Our analyses assess the normal developmental processes of preoccupation with identity formation and the establishment of intimate relationships, as well as responses to life changes (emigration, marriage, pregnancy). Overall, results suggest that despite serious challenges and losses, this individual experienced normal personality development throughout her trying adolescence. In addition, particular life events affected the course of that development. Factors which may have facilitated her resilience are discussed.

This paper examines the psychological implications of the migratory process on Latin American women in the United States, addressing is‐sues of gender roles, acculturation, language, loss, and grief that are frequently presented by immigrant Latinas in psychotherapy. The paper interprets these issues as reflective of the stresses created by the migratory process rather than as issues of individual psychopathology, and suggests ways to respond to them through psychotherapy.

This article reports the results of several small studies of Latina lesbians undertaken by the author over a period of twenty years. Using her personal experiences as a source of information, she also discusses the psychological implications of multiple identities for this population.In 1984, the first and only conference exclusively focused on lesbian psychologies took place in Boston. The organizers asked me to present something on Latinas, and rather than just provide anecdotal information based on my therapy practice or other contacts, I decided to conduct a small study. This small study, my first attempt to conceptualize experiences which are for me both personal and intellectual, was the seed of some of my later work. Although others were beginning to write about Latina lesbians (e.g., Anzaldúa,