In 1918, she published her first novel En una silla de ruedas (In a Wheelchair), which portrays national customs and manners through the eyes of a paralyzed boy who grows up to become an artist, with a strong dose of sentimentalism and intimations of the bohemian life of San Jose. She started sending articles to newspapers such as Diario de Costa Rica, La Hora and La Tribuna and magazines like Ariel, Athenea and Pandemonium and teaching throughout the country.
She began working at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in 1906 as a novice, but decided religious life was not her calling, and instead began working as a teacher and writer. María Isabel Carvajal Quesada was born on 15 January 1888 in San José, Costa Rica and attended the Superior School for Girls, graduating in 1904.
