As one of the most well-known poets writing in mid-19th-century Spain, she also played a diplomatic role (she was married to Horatio Perry, the American Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Madrid.)

She both negotiated with the Spanish royal family in private and, through a series of widely published poems, promoted the aims of the Lincoln administration, especially abolition of slavery.

They had one son – Carlos Horacio (1853–1854) and two daughters – Carolina (1857–1873) and Matilde (b 1861) who married Pedro Torres Cabrera, connected to the count of Canilleros.

At a time when women were not invited to public political conversations, Coronado succeeded in persuasively arguing against Spain's imperial legacy and urging support to rectify her nation's past colonial blunders, especially the introduction of slavery to the Americas.

Coronado had a revolutionary spirit, and she became famous while living in Madrid for the literary salons she held, a group that was called the Hermandad Lírica (Lyrical Sisterhood).

Her physical beauty undoubtedly contributed to her success, and it caused infamous admiration in other romantic writers, including poet José de Espronceda.

Her prolific works were compiled in a single volume entitled Poesías, published in 1843 and re-edited in 1852, that includes a prologue by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch.