Project coordinator: Ellen Calmus
Ellen is a writer and photographer who has taught children and adults at all levels, in Mexico, the U.S. and El Salvador, from pre-school art and drama classes to adult literacy to university courses in international relations. The Corner Project grew out of the educational resource center she started at the request of the children of Barrio San Juan in 1998, when she came to Malinalco in search of a quiet place to write. She graduated from Harvard University with an honors degree in visual studies and received a masters in international relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Assistant Coordinator: Maribel Sánchez Hernández
After dropping out of high school to work full time as a housecleaner, Maribel thought the doors to skilled work would be closed to her forever. But the skills she quickly developed upon starting work as our new office’s first administrator have made Maribel one of the Corner Project’s most capable collaborators, while her sensitivity to the special needs of families experiencing extended separations have made it possible for the Corner Project to help an increasing number of migrants’ children and families. Maribel likes working with these families because, she says, “When a migrants’ family has a problem you feel like it’s your own family, and you want to help.” .

Coordinator for Teaching English:
Siomara Murguía Sastre
Siomara, who studied design in Mexico and theater in Barcelona, grew up bilingual thanks to her English-speaking mother. She loves working with children and delights in the use of games, music and watercolor to make learning fun. Siomara teaches full time at Ameyalli, a Malinalco community school, but after teaching the English class in our 2007 summer program for migrants’ children she joined our team, and is now teaching them English, too. Her natural talent for teaching and empathy with the migrants’ children, whose emotional needs can create special challenges, has helped her classes build self-esteem while strengthening children’s abilities in a required subject which can also give them something to share with migrant parents when they call home.

Coordinator of Instruction in Arts and Woodcarving: Edgar Monroy Rodriguez
Gary, as all of Malinalco calls him, began carving as a seven-year-old shepherd, developing this skill into an art in the tradition of the ancient Aztec stone-carvers whose work can be seen in Malinalco's historic sites. Gary's larger pieces grace many local churches and his work has been exhibited internationally. This area's Aztec heritage means that there are many woodcarvers in the Malinalco area, but Gary's gift for inspiring young people's interest in woodcarving and his delight in sharing his skills with others has made him a figure of unparalleled affection and respect to the generations of young woodcarvers who have learned their art from him. We feel very fortunate that Gary has joined our team.

Coordinator for Weaving and Stitchery: Camelia Ramos
Camelia wanted to find a way to help her father, who in his sixties began finding it difficult to get the construction jobs he'd worked in all his life. During a lengthening period of unemployment, her father mentioned that as a young man in the nearby town of Tenancingo, which is famous for its hand-woven shawls, he'd worked as a weaver in the disappearing traditional waist-loom technique. Camelia got him the parts he needed to make a loom and set out to sell the beautiful shawls he began to produce, which have become famous in our region. Camelia is now working with the Corner Project on developing this cloth into fine scarves for export.

Editorial Coordinator: Laura Pérez Madrigal
A librarian and promising young writer, Laura first participated in the Corner Project when we invited her to write for a little magazine about Malinalco's Day of the Dead traditions. Since then she has assumed increasing responsibilities in Corner Project activities, and in 2005 her skilled editing and organizing earned her the position of editorial coordinator of Corner Project publications. She began by editing a collection of local ghost stories, organizing a Day of the Dead evening of story-telling which she recorded and edited into a book. Now she is working on a book of local memories from Mexico's revolution -- and, as you can see, Laura also pitches in as a model for our fashion exports.

Coordinator of Production: Ruth Sanchez
In the summer of 2006 Ruth joined the Corner Project's Malinalco Migrants' Eagles workshop as an apprentice woodcarver -- showing some spirit beneath her quiet demeanor, for it was unheard-of for young women to learn this skill. She earned the respect of all participants, not only learning herself but helping to teach the younger apprentices. Her proven talent for crafts plus her ability to see projects through led to an invitation to coordinate production for our new artisanal publications. With her earnings Ruth is helping to put herself through college at a branch campus she commutes to daily across the mountains in nearby Tenancingo.

Youth Team Coordinator: Óscar López Zamora
Óscar has proved to be a remarkably responsible and creative participant in Corner Project activities from the age of fifteen, when he joined the Corner Project as an acompañante (conversation partner) in the teaching of Spanish. Meanwhile, his talents in the visual arts quickly led to his creative skills getting applied to everything from illustrations for Corner Project publications to helping mount a photography exhibit to designing and painting the giant maguey mural on the Corner Project's entrance that has become a local landmark.

Living Museum Coordinator: José María Zamora Lara
Pepe (as everybody calls him) came to the Corner Project with the creative idea of fulfilling his university “social service” requirement by working with us. He used his social service time to research local traditions, interviewing area elders to produce a manuscript that became the Corner Project's first artesanally-produced book: El Diccionario tradicional de Malinalco . He also helped create the Living Museum project, in which he coordinates lectures and leads tours of traditional local treasures, ranging from classes in how to plow with a yoke of bulls or use a machete to demonstrations of the ancient Aztec irrigation system still employed in our valley.