An ethnographic study in an urban high school in California examines the ways in which immigrant students adapt in a community that is becoming increasingly multicultural. Individual biographies explored the shaping of self and each other for 10 female students and 5 teachers. Interviews and day to day observations were used to gain a picture of the school. The story of the high school is really the story of three seemingly different worlds, represented by recent immigrants (English-as-a-Second-Language students), the other students, and the faculty and administration. The division of the school community into these three groups is brought about by the marginalization and separation of immigrant students academically, the requirement that they become English-speaking and drop their native languages in order to participate in the academic and social life of the school, and the insistent pressure to find and take a place in the racial hierarchy of the United States. The grim reality is that those students who do not speak English well are tracked, separated, provided with inadequate instruction and instructional materials, and denied access to core content areas. There are no simple solutions to these obstacles. (SLD)