In the 1940s she worked for the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) making excavations in Teotihuacan; she produced several books on the cosmology and religion of the Nahua, like Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico.
Her main work was on the figure of Quetzalcoatl. She always maintained that Teotihuacan was the legendary Tollan.
Her work still is valued by specialists, but some were appalled since some of her work has been adopted by some esoteric groups, searching for occult teachings of the prehispanic religions, something she did no endorse.
Her last years were dedicated to bring education to Indian people in the south of Mexico.
She died at the age of 92.