[2][3] She acted in the film alongside her sisters, Ofelia and Angélica, who were collectively referred to as the Hermanas Cortesina.

[1][4] She began her career as a dancer, performing to songs by Spanish composers, with an aesthetic heavily influenced by Greek art.

[1] Cortesina has been identified as one of the models for the 1917 painting Danzarinas griegas, by the painter Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida.

[3] In 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Cortesina joined the Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals for the Defense of Culture.

[1] There, she established a theater company with Andrés Mejuto that produced a number of Spanish plays.