Mario Lara stood in front of the humming tortilla press. Each time it rose, he used his fingertips to snatch a paper-thin flour tortilla from its hot surface, and threw another lump of dough onto the griddle just before the machine thumped shut again.
Lara, 32, then tossed the pressed tortillas onto a rotating burner, where they were heated, flipped and ejected by a conveyor belt, directly into the hands of Manuel Ruiz.
Ruiz, 47, is the owner of Tortilleria La Roca in Carbondale, a tortilla factory and Mexican restaurant, 780 Highway 133.
On a recent day, he was in charge of bagging. As he sealed sack after clear plastic sack of piping hot tortillas with twist ties, his 67-year-old father, Jerardo Ruiz, stood across the room stirring a deep fryer full of homemade corn chips. READ MORE
Comments