The Corner Project's Living Museum was organized by a group of young people in their twenties, including some who traveled to study at universities in Toluca or Tenancingo during the week, but returned to Malinalco on weekends. Support from Malinalco's municipal government made it possible for The Corner Project to offer university credit for the research these young people did into the still vibrant traditional ways of this rural community, many of whose inhabitants have surnames of Aztec origin and use Nahuatl vocabulary in their daily speech. While the young people have been fascinated by what they are learning from barrio elders, their parents and grandparents find it highly gratifying to see them showing this interest in their traditions.

The Living Museum held its first event on a January 6th, Mexico 's “Three Kings' Day,” inviting local children to play traditional games on boards loaned by grandparents for this purpose. A locally-made Mexican piñata filled with local fruit, nuts and chunks of sugar cane was broken, with the traditional Mexican songs and excitement. However, the group decided that even if chocolate cake was not exactly a local tradition, the fact that Aztecs were the original producers of chocolate justified including it in the celebration, an innovation met with considerable approval from the children.