This paper is based on a year-long ethnographic study of successful Hispanic high school students. Twenty Hispanic high school seniors, 10 male and 10 female, were repeatedly observed and interviewed in school, home, and other settings. In this article the ways in which these students constructed their social identities is carefully examined. These successful students employed three modes of discourse about their Hispanic identities. When talking about their routine activities of achieving at school (discourses of "doing") these students affirmed an Hispanic identity and contrasted it to "White" identity. When talking about their futures (discourses of "becoming") these students distanced themselves dramatically from the term "Hispanic." When talking about their ethnicity directly (discourses of "being") these students problematicized the term "Hispanic" and attempted to reduce it from any real content. A communicative-action model of the self is developed in the beginning of the paper which is subsequently used to analyze and compare these three discourses. One table, one figure. (Contains 15 references.) (Author)