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Made in S.A.: El Guapo Fabrication & Design

Stumbling on to your passion doesn't happen for many. But for the man behind El Guapo Fabrication & Design, that's exactly the route his business has taken.

SAN ANTONIO—Inside this workshop is where you can find Willie Salas most evenings, working by the light of his torch.

"I got into cars and doing things by hands because my real job is with the foster care system,” Willie Salas, owner of El Guapo Fabrication & Design said. You see some stuff that is not the best thing to see.... this was just a good stress reliever."

His first real sign project was to create a logo for Deco Pizzeria.

"I was able to make it look 50 years old in ten days. We just burnt it a lot and put oil on it," Salas said.

Making that first sign helped him to find his style.

"What I use is the term nostalgic. It's more nostalgic using modern day technology to kind of

make it a little bit more efficient,” Salas said.

Willie’s new found love for creating metal art is now his part time business which he calls, El Guapo Fabrication & Design.

You can find Salas’ work all over San Antonio, including at Broadway News, which Willie considers a mini museum of his metal artwork.

“It's beyond the money it's just seeing people's reaction," Sanchez said. "If you notice I usually stay within the small business community and my logic behind that is that these people invest their time, their money, their passion… if I can be a little bit a part of that and see them succeed then it's really a good feeling," Salas said.

With a new passion burning in him, Salas has some advice for anyone who is fired up about a dream or a vision they’d like to bring to life.

"Do it! I'm a prime example of ambition beats talent," Salas said, talent that has taken this social worker from behind the desk to the front of the art scene.

“It's rare to find something that you really love to do, and it's even [rarer] to figure out

how to make money at it, and sustain itself and affect people the way it does. I'm really

blessed,” Salas said.

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