Lopez is the co-owner of Guelaguetza, an Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles, California in the United States.

Lopez is one of America's foremost authorities on Oaxacan culture and cuisine and is credited with helping to popularize mezcal in the United States.

Her parents, Maria Monterrubio and Fernando Lopez, opened Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan restaurant in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1994.

[1] That same year, the cookbook Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, written by Lopez and Javier Cabral, was published.

[6] The book has been named one of the top cookbooks of 2019 by Mother Jones, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.