In this chapter, the author believes that for Mexican-Americans ethnic identity has not been a singular experience, but a multi-faceted one. The conflict between the private and the public in a Mexican- American context, and the attempt to merge the two is one of the dominant themes that emerges from a recent oral-history project that he conducting. In examining Corona’s life is that his sense of ethnic, racial, class, and gender identity is multiple. Unlike the Corona text which is similar to the Latin American testimonio in that it is overtly political and centred on Corona’s participation and leadership in the Mexican-American community’s struggle against injustice and discrimination, Frances Esquivel Tywoniak’s narrative is not. The author analyses the multiple influences on the gender and ethnic identity of the young Fran Esquivel. Developing as an excellent student in her high school years, Fran was one of the few Mexican-American women in the late 1940s who was able to attend college.