[4] Her illustrations of cancerous bones, anatomical drawings, and radium experiments contributed to Duggan's research, and he was deeply impressed with her ability to understand complex aspects of cellular structures.

"[7]: 90 Nuñez married Manuel Carmonia-Nuñez, a Puerto Rican businessman and labor organizer for the Cigar Workers' Union[5] in New York City.

[8] This marriage was approved of by Mary,[1][3] although, in the book Women Imagine Change, it states that Nuñez wrote about her husband with varying emotions, "from tenderness to passion to ambivalence.

[4] Mary Duggan was a staunch activist and feminist who was particularly involved in uplifting the rights of Native Americans,[4] and she included Nuñez in her activism from a young age.

"[1] In 1898, when Nuñez was ten years old, she also attended one of the first meetings of what would one day become the Indian revival movement of the twentieth century.

[1] As an adult, and beginning around World War I, Nuñez became active in the Pan-Indian Movement and fought for the rights of Native Americans to join the armed forces.

[4] Beginning at a young age, Nuñez would create medical illustrations for Dr. Cornelius Duggan, and as an adult she was able to make money from this work.

[2] After Mary's death, Nuñez became destitute, and in order to survive, she began selling an "Indian Liniment" made of "Secret Herbs" on the streets of New York City.

Her medium of choice was oil paint on canvas, and she often focused on portraits of important people of her time, or else social problems that deeply concerned her.

[5] Her cause of death is not discussed in writings about her work and life, but author Stan Steiner states that "One Spring day she decided that she would die.

"[1] In preparation for her death she sent 20 of her favorite paintings to the National Museum of the American Indian, settled her affairs (giving the keys to her apartment along with her bankbook and instructions that she should be cremated to a neighbor), and went to the hospital.