[Last updated 6/1/23 3:37 PM PT—Video player embedded at the bottom of this post.]
Last September, I spent the day in Riverside, California researching one of my SoCal Wanderer articles for KCET—and while I was in town, I made sure I returned to Tio's Tacos.
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The sculptures have now also taken over the parking area and the outdoor patio in the front...
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"Pretty Lady," made of crushed tomato paste cans
... as well as the sidewalk by the taco stand's entrance.
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But across the board, the theme is consistent: beer bottles, mannequins, rubber masks, metal can lids, and other found materials.
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Among the recyled art attractions here...
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...are a small-scale reproduction of El Pueblo in downtown Los Angeles...
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...and skeleton mariachis...
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...with trash can cover sombreros.
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They seem happy, though silent.
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In fact, there's no shortage of skeletons at Tio's...
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...intermingling with other creatures...
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...and keeping themselves busy.
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It was nice to see that Sanchez's Beer Bottle Chapel—an active chapel (The San Diego Union-Tribune claims it's actually consecrated) where you can say a prayer, get married, or memorialize someone you love—had held up over the last 10 years since I'd last visited.
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It's named after Tio's Tacos restaurant owner Martín Sánchez—who's also the artist behind the garden's works of art, like the ukulele-playing Popeye.
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According to his bio, Sánchez grew up poor in the Mexican town of Sahuayo—and always valued discarded materials as treasures.
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Some may call it "junk"...
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...and some of it might even look a little scary...
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...but there's a lot of ingenuity that went into creating this folk art environment, which surrounds a sprawling fountain/water feature.
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Children are warned not to play in the area, which takes up one acre...
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...and all minors must be accompanied by an adult who holds their hand.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1270461lo.jpg)
After all, there's a lot that could hurt a child...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1270463lo.jpg)
...like tongue-wagging dragons...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1270465lo.jpg)
...and hungry serpents.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1270476lo.jpg)
In fact, anyone who enters the garden at Tio's Tacos—which a sign describes as a "Magical Town" (or Pueblo Mágico) does so at their own risk.
But what's worth doing in life that doesn't carry at least a little risk?
Now, there's still one thing I haven't done at Tio's—and that's try the Michoacán-style Mexican food, which it has been serving up since 1990 (just a few years after Sánchez relocated to California).
Of course I'll go back, even just for the art display—which is ever-changing (and, for now, growing). After all, true folk art is never finished.
P.S. I made it back for lunch—and to shoot a video for KCET's SoCal Wanderer! You can watch it in the player above.
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