[1] Her father, Abraham D. Ortiz, had arrived at Tepic originally from Oaxaca where he married Elvira Perez and engaged in haberdashery and the hardware trade.

Emilia was interested in the art from an early age, starting a love for dancing that soon changed to acting while also creating caricatures.

To foster her love of acting, Emilia was part of Alfredo Castillo's theater group where they performed works by; Garcia Lorca, Basurto, Villaurrutia, and Pirandello.

Emilia's early interest in art led to her receiving private classes from Jose Vizcarra, who was known for training painters from Guadalajara.

[7] The people she chose to create the caricatures of were Everado Pena Navarro, Chema Suarez, Dr. Izaguirre y Rojo, Pepito Ruvalcaba, and Juan Maisterrena.

Emilia's goal was to highlight the hostile environments the Sierra Madre Occidental and other indigenous inhabitants in the area faced.

Her figure has their face, arms, and hair heavily shaded, providing great detail of the physical appearance of the Huichol.

[4] The Contemporary art Center Emilia Ortiz was in a smaller location in Lerdo before it was moved to a larger venue in Centro Tepic.

[10] The State Art Gallery along with the Nayarit Plastic Workshop in the museum is where courses on photography, painting and drawing are taught.

With these paintings, Emilia continued her exploration of Oils, using vibrant colors and an overexaggerating of proportions to express the various common sayings in Nayarit.

The saying translates to, It's not that Chepa is so fat, what it has is badly wrapped, which Emilia chose to interpret as a larger woman riding a cycling machine as she appears to struggle.