While her journalism career began in 1960, continuing with regular columns in La Jornada, she was best known for her work in television, hosting two shows called Aquí nos tocó vivir and Conversando con Cristina Pacheco, both on Once TV since 1980.

[1] Until his death in 2014, she was married to writer, poet and translator José Emilio Pacheco, from whom she took her professional name and with whom she had two daughters.

[3][5] Despite her successful career in radio and television, she did not encourage her daughters to follow this path because she did not believe these media inform the public as they should.

[7][9] In addition to newspaper columns and reports, she also wrote short stories, chronicles, novels, essays and children's literature.

[3][8] Children's books include La chistera maravillosa (2004), El eucalipto Ponciano (2006), La canción del grillo (2006), Se vende burro (2006), Dos amigos (2008), El pájaro de madera (2008) and Humo en tus ojos (2010).

[1][3] She began as a commentator on the show Séptimo Días on Channel 13 on which she realized a series of interviews with writer Renato Leduc.

[7] In 1980, she began hosting two shows of her own on Once: Aquí nos tocó vivir and Conversando con Cristina Pacheco.

[7] With the show Conversando, con Cristina Pacheco, she profiled people in the arts and popular culture such as writers, musicians, artists, artisans, sports figures, which included Portuguese writer José Saramago, Catalan lyricist Joan Manuel Serrat, painters Juan Soriano and Perro Aguayo .

[1][11] With Aquí nos tocó vivir, the emphasis was on everyday Mexico, including interviews with people who were not famous but whose stories intrigued Pacheco.

[7] Pacheco died on 21 December 2023, 20 days after announcing her retirement from Aquí nos tocó vivir for health reasons.

[13] Her daughter, Laura Emilia Pacheco, revealed the next day that she died of cancer, detected less than a month prior to her death.

[6] In 2006 she was honored with an episode of a program called El ciclo Celebrando a … from CONACULTA at the Centro Cultural Tijuana.

This award was created to recognize women in the Spanish-speaking world who stand out in their fields and promote culture.