Professor in the Indioamerican Linguistics postgraduate degree. In more than three decades, she has conducted research projects among the Mayan Tzotzils in Los Altos de Chiapas, Mexico; she has also conducted investigations in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca and in the Ch’ol region of Chiapas. She has been a guest researcher at the Max Planck Psycholinguistics Institute in The Netherlands. Her book "The Arrival of the Soul: Language, Childhood and Socialization Among the Mayans in Zinacatlan" (México, CIESAS, INAH, Conaculta) received the INAH 2005 Award.