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“Fences” Introduction
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Pat Mora's "Fences" is set in a Spanish-speaking tourist town popular with vacationers. The poem contrasts the restricted, hardscrabble lives of the locals with the carefree privileges of the rich tourists. Just as a forbidding cactus fence divides the young speaker from the sunbathers, the metaphorical fences constructed by capitalism and inequality divide one economic class from the other. The poem appears in Mora's 1991 collection Communion.
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“Fences” Summary
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Laughing heartily, tourists arrive at the tall hotel, their luggage full of American currency.
In the mornings, my brother finds work making the beach (cooled by the night) nice and smooth for the tourists. With a flat piece of wood, he wipes away all the footprints from the day before.
Looking through a spiky wall of cacti, I watch female tourists coat themselves in sweet-smelling sunblock, rubbing it into their limbs. Their kids play in the sea or drink sweet beverages, using long straws to enjoy the white coconut or yellow mango flavors.
One time, my younger sister took off barefoot across the hot beach, desperate to try one of those drinks.
My mother stopped her and scolded her, her voice as loud as the waves themselves. She said that the beach belongs only to the tourists.
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“Fences” Themes
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Class, Privilege, and Inequality
Set in a Spanish-speaking tourist town, "Fences" describes a world in which money is king. Differences in economic (and perhaps racial) privilege effectively divide this town into two classes: the haves (tourists) and the have-nots (locals). The former enjoy a life of luxury, sunning themselves on the beach, while the latter—like the speaker and their family—have to keep their distance and/or provide services to the tourists. Money, or the lack of it, acts as an insurmountable "fence" between the two groups. The poem shows how class privilege creates a restrictive and unequal society, barring the less fortunate from their own local resources while granting the rich access to virtually anything.
The poem begins by contrasting tourists' experience of a coastal paradise with that of the speaker's family. A "tall hotel" full of "turistas" (tourists) looms over the town, the speaker says; tourists (most likely non-Spanish-speaking Americans) arrive with "suitcases full of dollars," which buy them access to the town, its beaches, and the locals' services. (The reference to "dollars"—the currency of the U.S., a country strongly associated with racial and wealth inequality—implies that these tourists wield racial and/or ethnic privilege in this area as well.)
For these tourists, the town represents leisure time: the women luxuriate in the sun; their children play in the "waves" and drink big, sugary "drinks" without a care in the world. But one person's leisure, the poem suggests, is another person's labor. The apparently carefree atmosphere of the town comes at a cost beyond the tourists' "dollars," making the locals second-class citizens in their own region.
In a world governed by money, the poem implies, the locals need the tourist industry in order to survive. Their work requires them to maintain the illusion that the town belongs to the tourists, not to them. The speaker's brother, for example, finds work smoothing the beach over every morning, making it pristine for the foreign sun-seekers. (Symbolically, this smoothing-over also suggests how this unjust system hides its messy realities.) The speaker's mom, meanwhile, scolds the speaker's little sister for running on the beach just like the tourist children do. The mother, it seems, understands the harsh economics at work here: even the appearance of a local on the beach would disrupt the illusion that the beach exists solely for the tourists' enjoyment.
The unequal relationship between locals and tourists creates a restrictive, "fence[d]"-off society. The young speaker might not fully understand this relationship, but they seem to sense its unfairness. The speaker can only "peek" at the tourists' world through a "cactus fence." In other words, class inequality creates a border (both real and symbolic) between haves and have-nots, dividing them as if with a wall of threatening spikes. The locals are not only barred from the luxuries of the tourists (hotel stays, etc.), they're barred from the simple pleasures of their own local area, such as walking on the beach. Simply by virtue of the economic class they were born into (and perhaps their race/ethnicity as well), the speaker is sharply limited in their opportunities. If "dollars" buy leisure and "laughter," the poem implies, lack of money brings unrewarding work and general unhappiness.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Fences”
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Lines 1-3
Mouths full of ...
... full of dollars."Fences" is set in a Spanish-speaking seaside town. In this first stanza ("Mouths full [...] dollars"), "turistas" (the Spanish word for tourists) arrive with cash to spend and act as if the place belongs to them. The locals are tasked with maintaining this illusion—though, arguably, the power of money makes the illusion pretty real.
Notice that it's the tourists who appear in the poem first, rather than the speaker or the speaker's family (who are locals). This ordering subtly reflects their sense of entitlement: tourists first, locals second. And it's their noise that arrives first: their "Mouths full of laughter" (line 1). The tourists have entered holiday mode, walking around carelessly, without a thought for the locals who actually live in the area. They stay in a "tall hotel" that looms above the locals, suggesting their (conscious or unconscious) sense of superiority. Their cackling mouths, which almost seem disembodied, make for a disturbing first image. The /l/ consonance that occurs throughout the stanza seems to echo this loud, obnoxious laughter:
Mouths full of laughter,
the turistas come to the tall hotel
with suitcases full of dollars.This effect is reinforced by the sharp /t/ alliteration and consonance in "turistas, "to," "tall," and "hotel." (The /l/ is a lush, lavish sound, so it might also suggest the way the tourists come to the town to pamper themselves.)
Even in these first few lines, there's a clear juxtaposition developing between the locals and the tourists. The speaker describes them with the Spanish word "turistas," marking them out as different while also hinting at the speaker's own identity. The tourists, meanwhile, bring "suitcases full of dollars," suggesting that they've come from the U.S. Their dollars give them access and privileges, allowing them to treat the town as their own playground. The fact that their "suitcases" are "full" of this cash (a somewhat hyperbolic image) hints at their excess and greed, a luxurious lifestyle founded on inequality.
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Lines 4-7
Every morning my ...
... away all footprints.
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Lines 8-10
I peek through ...
... arms and legs -
Lines 11-13
while their children ...
... white, mango yellow. -
Lines 14-19
Once my little ...
... It’s their beach."
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“Fences” Symbols
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Smoothing the Beach
The beach is central to "Fences," as it's the main reason the "turistas" come to town. To them, the beach is a site of leisure and carefree fun; to the locals, it's a place of work and exclusion. The tourists expect the beach to feel like it's untouched, a corner of paradise reserved just for them. To maintain this illusion, the speaker's brother smooths out the sand before the tourists arrive each day, wiping away the evidence that anyone has been there before.
This process symbolizes the unseen labor that upholds the wealthy and privileged class's comfort. It reflects the way that the capitalist system tends to cover its tracks, offering consumers products and services without forcing them to think about what labor went into those products and services (or who suffered in the process of creating them). The beach is a zone of exclusion reserved for those who can afford it. Locals stepping into this zone (at the wrong hour) would upset the tourists' sense of privilege—which is why the mother gets so angry with the speaker's sister when she runs into it.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 4-7: “Every morning my brother makes / the cool beach new for them. / With a wooden board he smooths / away all footprints.”
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The Fence
The title refers to multiple "Fences," not just the cactus fence in line 8. That's because the literal fence symbolizes other kinds of barriers: specifically, the social and economic barriers that divide the locals from the tourists.
The cactus fence physically separates these two groups—one poor or working-class, the other wealthy; one Spanish-speaking (likely from Mexico, Central America, or South America), the other presumably not. The fence helps the tourists feel as though the beach exists just for them and that no one has to struggle to maintain it. Meanwhile, for the speaker "peek[ing] through" the fence (line 8), it becomes a window onto the tourists' strange, luxurious world. Notice that the fence shuts the locals out from their own beach, illustrating the way global capitalism, class differences, and racial privilege often bars communities from their own local resources. The cacti also have spikes to deter locals from scaling the fence: a symbol of the violence that sustains the capitalist system.
Ultimately, then, the divisions between locals and tourists don't just depend on this cactus barrier. What really divides the two groups are social and economic forces: class (wealth), race, ethnicity, etc. Thus, the fence illustrates the inequalities of the system these characters live under and the way this system excludes some groups to satisfy the desires of others.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 8-13: “I peek through the cactus fence / and watch the women rub oil / sweeter than honey into their arms and legs / while their children jump waves / or sip drinks from long straws, / coconut white, mango yellow.”
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“Fences” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Assonance
"Fences" uses assonance to bring two of its key images to life. In the third stanza, for example, the speaker describes how the tourists' children spend their time on the beach: either jumping waves or enjoying delicious drinks. Lines 12-13 explain that they:
[...] sip drinks from long straws,
coconut white, mango yellow.The short /ih/ assonance in "sip drinks" makes these beverages sound all the more smooth and pleasant. The line itself goes down easy! The bold /o/ assonance in the following line—which includes the light internal rhyme of "mango" and "yellow"—makes the poem sound as if it's slipped into the language of advertising jingles (imagine these flavors on a billboard). In short, assonance makes the drinks seem more desirable—an important and sought-after trait in a capitalist world.
The speaker's little sister desires these drinks herself, and sprints across the sand to try one. Assonance appears in this image, too (lines 14-16):
Once my little sister
ran barefoot across the hot sand
for a taste.Together with heavy /t/ consonance ("little sister," "barefoot," "hot," "taste"), assonance intensifies the sound of these lines, evoking the intense heat of the sand as well as the eagerness with which the girl runs off.
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 5: “cool,” “new”
- Line 6: “smooths”
- Line 12: “sip drinks,” “long straws”
- Line 13: “coconut,” “mango yellow”
- Line 15: “ran,” “across,” “hot,” “sand”
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Asyndeton
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Juxtaposition
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Repetition
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Simile
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“Fences” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Turistas
- The Cactus Fence
Turistas-
(Location in poem: Lines 2-2: “the / turistas / come to the tall hotel”)
Spanish for "tourists." This word signals that the local residents of the area, including the speaker, are probably Spanish speakers.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Fences”
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Form
"Fences" doesn't use a traditional poetic form. Instead, it uses stanzas of varying length, with all but the last two serving as a kind of self-contained episode. The poem consists of a tercet (three-line stanza), a quatrain (four-line stanza), a sestet (six-line stanza), and two more tercets.
Each stanza is end-stopped; there's no enjambment between one stanza and the next. One could say, then, that the poem's form "fences in" each stanza, mirroring the poem's literal and symbolic "Fences." It's as though the poem keeps trying to get somewhere, but keeps running into restrictions. Notice that the only stanzas linked directly by narrative are the last two, in which the little sister tries to cross the boundary between locals and tourists. For a moment, the poem itself seems to break its own rules. But the attempt doesn't last long: the mother and the end of the poem quickly cut it off.
Each stanza has a different subject: in stanza 1, it's the tourists; in stanza 2, it's the speaker's brother; in stanza 3, the speaker; in stanza 4, the speaker's sister; in stanza 5, the speaker's mother. Formally, it's as though each character (or collective character, in the case of the turistas) is fenced off from the rest.
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Meter
"Fences" is written in free verse, using rhythms that feel pretty close to regular speech. The lack of meter helps give the poem a plainspoken, natural-sounding tone. The speaker is probably a child, so this tone is appropriate to the poem's voice and subject. It also aligns with the poem's down-to-earth diction, allowing the speaker to paint the scene in brief, clear details.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Fences" is a free verse poem, so it doesn't use a rhyme scheme. The lack of rhyme and meter adds to the poem's plain style, making its language feel close to natural speech. These choices make sense in part because the poem's speaker is most likely a child.
Line 13 ("Coconut [...]. yellow.") does contain something like an internal rhyme: "mango yellow." This phrase describes one of the drink flavors on offer to the tourists' children. The rhyme is kind of gaudy, as though mimicking the language of advertising—designed to attract desire and dollars!
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“Fences” Speaker
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The poem is written from a first-person perspective. The speaker lives in a resort town frequented by (presumably American) tourists. The speaker's use of "turistas" (Spanish for "tourists") in line 2 suggests that the town is predominantly Spanish-speaking (perhaps somewhere in Mexico or Central America).
The speaker appears to be a child, probably the middle child of three. The speaker's brother is old enough to work on the beach in the morning, while their "little sister" is too young to understand that she can't go on the beach. The speaker's innocent perspective—particularly in stanza 3, as they peek through the cactus fence ("I peek [...] mango yellow")—makes the locals' exclusion from the beach seem all the more unfair and inexplicable. The speaker shows a childlike curiosity at this moment, looking in on the tourists' world as if it's a different planet.
Because the speaker's circumstances (including age) differ substantially from the poet's, the poem can be read as a brief dramatic monologue.
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“Fences” Setting
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"Fences" is set in an unspecified Spanish-speaking town where tourists come to enjoy the beach and spend their "suitcases full of dollars" (currency that implies these tourists are from the U.S.).
Even though it's in one geographical setting, two parallel worlds exist side-by-side here. For the tourists, this is a place to let loose and soak up the sun; for the locals, it's the place where they earn a living. The "tall hotel" looms over the town, suggesting the economic power the tourists hold over the locals. A threatening "cactus fence" separates the hardworking locals from the beachgoing tourists. The poem thus shows how class, privilege, and inequality can divide towns and regions, favoring "haves" over "have-nots" and disempowering locals in order to satisfy wealthy outsiders.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Fences”
Literary Context
Pat Mora is a contemporary American poet, born in El Paso, Texas in 1942. Her grandparents moved to El Paso from northern Mexico, and the Mexican-American border features heavily in Mora's poetry. Mora refers to the southwestern U.S. landscape as "my world, my point of reference" and calls herself a "child of the border." She writes in both English and Spanish, sometimes switching between the two. Speaking about the importance of her Mexican heritage to her work, Mora has said, "When I finally realized that I had a sort of a vein of gold that I had never tapped, it was like opening that treasure chest. My whole Mexican heritage was something that I could write about."
Indeed, the town in "Fences" might well be in Mexico, given the use of the Spanish word "turistas" in line 2 and the influx of spend-happy tourists with U.S. currency. The poem was published in Mora's book Communion (1991), which examines both the U.S. and Mexico through Mora's multicultural framework. Many of Mora's poems focus on the barriers, both visible and invisible, that divide humanity (as in the case of the cactus fence here). "Legal Alien," for example, focuses on the challenges of being both "bi-lingual [and] bi-cultural [...] an American to Mexicans / A Mexican to Americans." In some Mora poems, however, the border can also be a place of healing and unity.
Mora's work joins a rich tradition of Latin American poetry that has gained greater visibility since the late 20th century. Communion appeared in the same decade as acclaimed collections like Francisco X. Alarćon's Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992) and Rhina P. Espaillat's Where Horizons Go (1998), as well as influential anthologies such as El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry (1997), edited by Martín Espada. A selection of work by recent and contemporary U.S. Latinx poets is available here.
Historical Context
Published in 1991, "Fences" appeared in the modern era of global capitalism. By this point in history, most—though not all—countries in the world had adopted some form of capitalism (an economic system in which private entities, rather than the people or government, own a country's means of production and operate them for profit). The U.S. has historically been the world's foremost promoter of capitalism, particularly over rival systems like communism. Indeed, since the mid-20th century, the American dollar (see line 3) has dominated this system; it's the world's primary reserve currency and the official currency of the world's richest nation.
The 1990s were a period of relative prosperity, at least for already wealthy countries. However, global inequality worsened during these supposed boom times (as it has throughout the more recent pandemic years). In the previous decade, many Latin American countries, including Mexico, had experienced a severe debt crisis, widening the gap between their prosperity and that of the U.S. Over the past several centuries, many economists and political thinkers have argued that a global system oriented around profit inevitably creates such massive inequalities.
"Fences" dramatizes these problems of privilege and inequality in the context of a single town, illustrating a divide between rich tourists and working-class, Spanish-speaking locals. The poem shows how tourism can create a kind of double-bind, providing certain kinds of work on the one hand while producing severe exploitation on the other.
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More “Fences” Resources
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External Resources
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More Poems and a Biography — Read more about Mora's life and work at the Poetry Foundation.
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The Cost of Cheap Tourism — An article that looks at the effects of tourism on some of Mexico's coastal cities.
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Pat Mora Interviewed — The poet talks about her life, work, and Mexican heritage.
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Latinx Poetry in the U.S. — Poems (and essays) by American writers who have roots in Latin American countries and cultures.
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Mora on the Art of Poetry — The poet talks about poetry's special qualities.
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