In 1933, she completed her studies and began a career as a teacher and pedagogue. Due to her work, she was invited by UNESCO and different educational organizations to Paris, London, Geneva, and Madrid in the 1960s. Her first novel, La mujer desnuda, was published in 1950, followed by the short story collections El derrumbamiento (1953), De miedo en miedo (1967), and Un retrato para Dickens (1969). At the end of 1969, she fell ill from chylothorax and suffered a slow and painful recovery. This experience led her into a long and laborious creative process lasting from 1972 to 1975, and out of which is born her monumental novel Sólo los elefantes encuentran mandrágora (1986). The Naked Woman was translated by Kit Maude and published in 2018. The translation of her second novel, Only Elephants Find Mandrake, is underway.