How similar to or different from each other do metropolitan Miami's Latin@s currently view themselves as they interact in a distinctive Hispanic-dominant space? To investigate this question, Latin@ college students from seven ethnicities/nationalities prominent in the region were interviewed and asked to identify both what they viewed as commonalities shared by all Latin@s in the area as well as what differentiates them. Through content analysis the authors find complete overlap in the top three themes interviewees reported for both similarities and distinctions (language, culture, and food). However, a closer, qualitative analysis of what respondents actually say explains this apparent conundrum. When discussing food, for instance, respondents cited commonalities in terms of ingredients but explained that groups prepare them differently. The authors utilize various demographic, theoretical and analytical approaches to explain the results, concluding that there are simultaneously forces binding and separating the region's Latin@s. © 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.