A New, Hands-On Life

By now, Richard’s Workshop has become something of a landmark on a narrow El Sereno street. Cars slow as they drive by, adults wave and children call out his name. Inside, Rick Mendoza works eight hours each day, caving wood into rocking burros, hobby horses and countless other gifts for neighborhood children.

Mendoza, a former Dodger Stadium landscape supervisor, broke his back 10 years ago. Undaunted, he taught himself woodworking and created the workshop in his garage, where a table saw, lathe, drill press and other power tools have been adjusted to wheelchair height.

For the past five years, the workshop has been a place where neighbors and children stop to chat while the dust flies, motors roar and Mendoza churns out a variety of wooden folk art. Occasionally, his wife, Rachel, helps him move heavy equipment from one corner of the workshop to another.

The place is cluttered with hand tools, glues, paints, raw lumber and several works-in-progress, including a hand-carved rocking horse, Christmas decorations and a silhouette cutout of a Southwestern scene.

Before he was disabled, mendoza described himself as a couch potato. Now, he says, “Life is a marathon.”