<p>Pan-ethnic groups are political-cultural collectivities made up of groups from different national origins, but which are nevertheless perceived as homogeneous. The pan-ethnic label Central American is often used to identify peoples from the isthmus despite their deep ethnic, racial, linguistic, regional, national, and cultural differences. This article examines the social construction of pan-ethnicity among Central Americans as they campaign for Little Central America, a renaming project in the heart of Los Angeles. I draw on twenty-one interviews with longtime community leaders, and participant observation with prominent Central American coalitions, to examine how they construct pan-ethnic group boundaries while negotiating group differences. Despite their vast differences, leaders draw on histories of resistance and political struggle, transnationalism, and shared experiences of invisibility and marginalization within dominant constructions of US Latinidad to call for pan-ethnic unity, while negotiating differences in gender and political ideologies, as well as racial differences. By examining these negotiations within the context of the Little Central America campaign, I show how community leaders manage the construction of group boundaries to mobilize claims for representation.</p>