Through the Smoke

By Benjamin Fanjoy

Benjamin Fanjoy

Team Lee

STORY SUMMARY

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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.

Homero Balderas walks into the smokehouse at Wabash Barbeque in Excelsior Springs, Mo. Balderas smokes dozens of pounds of various meats Monday through Saturday including brisket, pork and turkey.

Homero Balderas pulling brisket out from a smoker at Wabash Barbeque. Balderas waits and checks the meat until the cooking temperature reaches 200 degrees inside the brisket.

Homero Balderas moves smoked brisket from cooking trays to wrap in tin foil at the smokehouse of Wabash Barbeque.

Light shines through a wall mounted fan in the smokehouse. Fans are used to ventilate the smoke out of the small single room building.

Homero Balderas driving to Kansas City, Mo., to wire money to family in Mexico.

Homero Balderas wire transfers money to his mother in Mexico from a store near Kansas City, Mo. Balderas makes the trip biweekly from Excelsior Springs.

Homero Balderas drives past a row of American flags to transfer money to his mother in Mexico from a store near Kansas City, Mo. He left work in his pickup truck around 3:30 p.m. the day after moving out of his family’s home.

Jacqueline Balderas passes her daughter, Analouisa, to her father, Homero Balderas, outside the smokehouse at Wabash Barbecue in Excelsior Springs, Mo. Jacqueline brought the children to Homero’s place of work to visit with their father and sit down for lunch.

Homero Balderas holds his daughter Analuisa at Wabash Barbecues. Homero spends a limited amount of time with his children due to his long work hours and no longer living in their home.

Homero Balderas hangs his head behind a hand rail next to his wife Jacqueline Balderas at his work. Tension in their marriage resulted in Homero moving out of their home earlier that week.

Jacqueline Balderas’s daughter, Analuisa, right, watches as her brother gets off the school bus. Shortly after, Balderas drives to her night shift job at the Ford factory while her parents help take care of the kids.

Homero Balderas shows Cynthia Loflin a photo of his daughter while having dinner in Excelsior Springs. Balderas moved into a room at Loflins house several days earlier after tension in their marriage resulted in Homero moving out of their home earlier that week.

Brian Kratzer, Co-Director

Alyssa Schukar, Co-Director

Hany Hawasly, Technical Director

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