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The Corner Project of Malinalco

The Corner Project of Malinalco is a community organization devoted to the educational and economic development of this beautiful, historically Aztec municipality of the State of Mexico, located near the religious pilgrimage site of Chalma, high in the mountains southwest of Mexico City.

Faced with a globalizing economy that makes it increasingly difficult for Malinalco’s families to support themselves by means of the subsistence agriculture that has been the area's economic mainstay for generations, driving an increasing number of young people to migrate to the U.S. in search of ways to earn a living, Corner Project programs have grown to incorporate a focus on the special needs of migrants’ families experiencing the crises and extended separations imposed by a violent, rigid border.

Programs for migrants’ families and children include special summer programs, counseling and access to internet telephones to help families survive crises and help children stay in school while coping with parents’ extended absence.

Our income-generating programs apply the new communications technologies, fair trade marketing methods and the design of new products using traditional motifs and materials in collaboration with Malinalco’s master artisans to develop domestic and export markets so that Malinalco’s artisans can earn a decent wage while training new generations in their finely-executed crafts, creating local jobs and helping to preserve Malinalco’s cultural treasures.

Context

Many of the people of Malinalco are poor, but they know they live in one of the most beautiful places in Mexico. This area’s cultural heritage and much local vocabulary go back to Aztec times, but both this culture and the livelihood of the local inhabitants are threatened with extinction by changing economic factors and encroaching imported mass culture.

Subsistence farming had long been the backbone of the local economy, but it has become less and less feasible as a means to support a family in the years since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While the principal economic activity for the area -- employing over half of the working population -- continues to be the growing of corn, sugar cane, rice and oats, increasing competition from international agricultural producers favored by NAFTA has meant that a diminishing number of local residents can make a living in this way. This has lead to small landowners gradually being forced to sell the land that previously provided for their families, and thus to rising unemployment, resulting in a growing number of local young people deciding they have no alternative but to leave the area in order to seek jobs in Mexico City and, increasingly, in the U.S.

Since the majority who cross the border to the north do so illegally, the journey often means years of not being able to return to Malinalco to visit their families, for fear of not being able to recross the border to report back to their jobs. This has led to divided families, and to children being raised by a single parent or their grandparents. Meanwhile, returning migrants have brought Malinalco's first cases of AIDS, drug problems and the beginnings of gang activity.

The inhabitants of this lovely but underdeveloped area would like nothing better than to stay home and work to help Malinalco flourish. The people here feel strongly that access to education and training can help them develop the knowledge and skills they need to preserve this beautiful area and make it productive in ways that will not destroy its culture. It is this conviction that has produced the popular support which gives the Corner Project's work its impetus. People in neighboring towns are watching developments here with interest, and have expressed hopes that a similar project could be started in their area. We believe that with some outside support, combined with the considerable talents, energy, charm and enthusiasm of local residents, the Corner Project can provide the boost in terms of educational development necessary to make an important and positive difference to Malinalco and surrounding areas.