Despite a general consensus that heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language (L2) learners are best taught in separate classes, they often end up in mixed classes (Abdi, 2011; Burgo, 2017; Draper & Hicks, 2000). To date, however, there remains a lack of sufficient research on how to best support HLLs in mixed classes (Burgo, 2017). In this ethnographic case study, the researcher set out to understand the lived experiences of eighth grade HLLs in a mixed Spanish classroom. The researcher visited a Spanish class over the course of six months during which audio and video recordings captured classroom interactions. The findings reveal that the teacher's use of the labels "advanced Spanish-dominant" and "English-dominant" created two distinct groups which were physically separated in the classroom. This dichotomy appeared to simultaneously constrain and provide affordances for various learning opportunities for the two different groups.