The Corner Project / Proyecto El Rincón, a community organization of Malinalco, Mexico, offers Aztec-inspired matching brooches, earrings and scarves, embroidered handbags.

Each item is hand-crafted by local artisans. Sales create jobs and support crisis work with migrants' families, and provide funding for programs to help keep migrants' children in school.

The ancient town of Malinalco, located high in the mountains of central Mexico, southwest of Mexico City, was where the Aztecs sent their elite Eagle Warriors and Jaguar Warriors for spiritual training. The temple carved into the mountain that rises above Malinalco's central plaza was the site of their most important rites. The centerpiece is the stone altar carved out of the living rock in the shape of a huge eagle.

The Aztecs who sculpted this temple bequeathed their art to subsequent generations of Malinalco sculptors, and their descendents include Malinalco's stone- and wood-carvers, renowned throughout the region for their art. Yet their remote location and lack of connection to markets to sell their fine products for a price worthy of this handwork has kept many of Malinalco's best artisans living in poverty. Sadly for their families and community, some are unable to earn a decent living locally and so they migrate north to the U.S., for higher wages in construction and agriculture. These artisans have been among the strongest supporters of the Corner Project / Proyecto El Rincón of Malinalco.

In 2006 Malinalco's woodcarvers joined the Corner Project's educational team to develop fine products suitable for export. Their first product was a small eagle carved in wood, mounted on a silver brooch pin specially designed by the Corner Project and crafted by an artisan family in the nearby city of Taxco. Because earnings from sales go towards the Corner Project's support for migrants' families and children as well as to pay the artisans themselves for their work, they named these brooches "Malinalco Migrants' Eagles."

The next item they designed for production was a pair of earrings, inspired by the native nasturtium flowers that grow in profusion around Malinalco. These earrings are mounted on silver posts, handcrafted by Taxco artisans.

Then the Corner Project team worked with a local weaver to design a matching scarf. These beautiful scarves are hand-woven from the finest all-cotton hand-dyed thread, employing the same waist-loom weaving technique used for the rebozos or traditional shawls for which this region has been famous since colonial times. The long sides of the scarves are finished with drawn-thread hand embroidery and the ends are worked into a deep hand-knotted fringe like that used to finish the traditional rebozos.

Proceeds from sales of these earrings, brooches and scarves help support the Corner Project's work with migrants' families and children. You can see more about this program at www.elrincon.org/english/migrantsfamilies.htm