*WATCH* Tour of Casa de Azucar, El Paso’s Sugar House
Located between Highway 54 and Dyer Street is an El Paso original. Casa de Azucar, or Sugar House. I could try to describe Casa de Azucar in my own words, but I'd rather someone else with more knowledge do it. This comes from Roadtrippers.com:
Tucked next to Highway 54, in a modest neighborhood, this self-taught environments rivals most. Mr. Loya, a retired Levi Strauss worker, came home each night from a long day and worked on making good on his promise to his wife to make something beautiful for her. Inspired by the churches he saw when growing up in Mexico and his love of El Paso, Mr. Loya has done more than his part in making is little part of the world beautiful. With the generous help of gallery owner Adair Margo, with interpreting, this morning became a “moment”. Mr. Loyas Rivas crafted his yard and concrete fence by hand, and then painted the surfaces mostly in white, with light blue accents. The colorful shrines pop along the fence. Confection-like spires are so uniform and well crafted that one almost thinks that they were manufactured in some way other than with the skillful hands of Rufino Loya Rivas.
Stop and think about this. You more than likely have a lot of extra time on your hands right now. What are you doing with that extra time? Rufino Loya was carving and painting an absolute masterpiece. Take advantage of this down time and learn something new. It could be anything. Painting. Yoga. Electrical engineering. Sculpting amazing artwork out of cement. It's your choice. Just make a choice and take advantage of this time.