The artist was born in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico into a powerful, traditional family with the name of Elena Enriqueta Huerta Muzquiz.
Her father, Adolfo Huerta Vargas and her maternal grandfather, José María Múzquiz, were governors of the state of Coahuila from the late 19th into early 20th centuries.
[2] However, her father's death adversely affected the family's economic situation, and she had to work various jobs, such as telephone operator, to live and pay for her art education.
Herrera was a prominent artist and educator who has studied and worked in Italy until Mexican president Venustiano Carranza asked him to return to Mexico.
[1][2][4] Soon after finishing her studies in Saltillo, she moved to Mexico City, where she took a number of courses in painting and sculpture at the Academy of San Carlos.
In 1935, the Ministry of Education accepted new works for the puppet theatre that focused on socialist ideas and reserved the right to censor and drastically change submissions.
[3][1] Her daughter Electa died about twenty years later, falling from scaffolding while collaborating with her uncle Siqueiros on the Poliforum in Mexico City.
Collaborating with painters Nea Murguía, Cuauhtémoc Gonzalez, Manuelita Sánchez, Moisés dela Peña and Jesús Negrete the work covers 400 years of history since the city's founding.
[9] Near the end of her life, she wrote her memoirs, published under the title of El círculo que se cierra in 1999 by the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila.
One reason for this was that women did not win commissions for murals during most of the 20th century, and many of her years were taken up with health concerns, family responsibilities, teaching and her involvement with the Communist Party.
This project was done at the auditorium of the campus being built at the time, on which she collaborated with her daughter Electa and fellow Coahuila painter, Eloy Cerecero.
[1][3] Soon after, she began the Instituto de Ciencias y Artes project, working with María Romana Herrera, the daughter of her former teacher, and Chacha Martínez Morton.
Upon completion of these projects, Huerta was offered a teaching position in printing and painting by the state of Coahuila, supported by INBA.