ABSTRACT

The dilemma for Latina lesbians is how to integrate who they are culturally, racially, and religiously with their identity as lesbians and women. The identity of each Latina lesbian develops through conscious and unconscious choices that allot relative importance to the different components of the self and thus of her identity as woman, as lesbian, as Latina. For both lesbians and ethnic minority persons of both sexes and, indeed, for ethnic minority lesbians, the process of identity development is full of vicissitudes, and it frequently demands the submerging of different fragments of the self. In this chapter the author distributed a questionnaire through friendship pyramiding among Cuban lesbians in several cities in the United States and analyzed the responses primarily through the use of qualitative methods. Some implications for the practice of psychotherapy with lesbians can be derived from the discussion of the specific factors influencing the identity development of lesbians and from the results of this brief study.