This book examines Mexican American and white girls coming of age in California's Central Valley, offering tools for understanding the ways in which class identity is constructed, and at times fails to be constructed, in relationship to color, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Chapter 1, "Portraying Waretown High," introduces the issue. Chapter 2, "Women without Class," reviews the academic theory debates employed in this analysis. Chapter 3, "How Working-Class Chicas Get Working-Class Lives," focuses on working-class Mexican American girls. Chapter 4, "Hard-Living Habitus, Settled-Living Resentment," focuses on working-class white girls. Chapter 5, "Border Work between Classes," looks at both white and Mexican American working-class girls who are exceptional in that they are taking college preparatory classes and plan to attend four-year institutions. Chapter 6, "Sameness, Difference, and Alliance," explores relationships between various groups of girls across class and race. Chapter 7, "Conclusion," speaks to the larger social and historical forces that shape the lives of this generation of young women, drawing conclusions about the utility of the concepts of performance and productivity. (Contains approximately 360 references.) (SM)