It’s not trash. It’s art.
Whether one is stopping by Torchy’s Tacos in Casa Linda for chips and queso, taking a photo at the East Dallas mural, or just passing through, you may be wondering, “What’s up with all the miniature cardboard cutouts behind the building?”
It’s not just cardboard and it’s not debris, it’s a mini-village, Salvador Ruiz, village designer and Torchy’s employee said.
The tiny town started last year after Ruiz’s manager asked him if he could build a terrace-like boundary to keep dirt from moving into the dumpster.
After a while of cleaning and removing the excess dirt, he discovered the space was a garden.
Having a garden wasn’t a bad choice, but it was boring, he said. So he brainstormed a better idea, “What if I turned the space into a small village similar to the houses on the hills of Sweden and Norway.”
What started last year as a task to clean up the muddy dumpster area behind the restaurant has now become a mini-exhibit for guests.
It began with one little red house, but Ruiz knew it needed more. And with an “endless supply” of building material, Ruiz was on a mission.
Each night after his shift for two weeks straight, Ruiz went home to build miniature skyscrapers, residential towers, Google and Walmart headquarters, Amazon and a soon-to-be Torchy’s.
“This is just something I enjoy doing … no one’s asking me to do it, and once I start a project, if it doesn’t have an end, I will keep going and going and going till I can’t go anymore,” he said. “If it’s something positive that makes people smile I’ll keep doing that because what harm is that going to do?”
Everything in Ruiz’s little city is built from accumulated cardboard boxes from work, duct tape, glue and recycled trash he may find on his bike ride home.
The village consists of miniature solar panels, a plane, buildings both large and small and homes of various colors.
While he enjoys building and seeing his finished products, his favorite part of the mini-village is how involved the community has been.
“Everyone loves it, I’ve found little toys out there [when] parents bring their kids and they’ll leave little tractors and stuff like that … I mean, it’s not just like this ‘show [only] thing don’t touch this $3,000 piece of art’ no, [it’s there] for everyone to enjoy,” he said.
Ruiz confirms that the tiny village is still growing, and if you want to see more additions, “Keep on coming to our restaurant, you never know,” he adds.
The mini-village is located in Casa Linda Plaza behind Torchy’s Tacos at 9440 Garland Rd suite 234.
