Homero Balderas, an immigrant from Veracruz, Mexico, works as a pit master at Wabash Barbecue in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Balderas has been working at Wabash for several months, smoking a variety of meats including pork, brisket and turkey. He smokes hundreds of pounds of meat every week, putting in ten hours every day, and those long hours have put a strain on his marriage to Jacqueline Balderas. Due to the couple’s conflicts, Homero has moved out, less than a mile from the home he shares with his wife and four children. Jacqueline now brings their young children to Homero’s place of work in the early afternoons to visit with their father. After work, Homero stays in a single room at a nearby house, going to bed early in order to rise at 5 a.m. to start smoking meat at Wabash before the sun comes up. Additionally, Homero drives bi-weekly to Kansas City to wire money to his aging mother who lives in Mexico.