Her mother was good friends with María Asúnsolo and was well acquainted with people such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Carlos Pellicer and Juan Soriano .
Soon after, Rodríguez Lozano helped her to enter the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" in 1947, where she graduated with honors in 1951.
[1][2] Her studies under Rodríguez Lozano and La Esmeralda (with painters such as Agustín Lazo, Carlos Orozco Romero and Antonio M. Ruíz) were very academic and based on the then dominant Mexican School of Painting.
[2] Encouraged by Juan Soriano to explore other kinds of painting, in 1953, she received a scholarship to study in Paris, moving there with her new husband Ricardo Guerra.
She enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, learning about avant-garde movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism and various forms of abstract art.
[2] At the end of 1970, she suffered a spinal aneurysm, forcing her to be hospitalized in 1971 and 1972 in the attempt to recover from partial paralysis but she returned home in a wheelchair.
[2] 1969 was a productive year for Carrillo, producing works that appeared in multiple shows in Puerto Vallarta, Paris and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
[2] She participated in collective exhibitions in Mexico City, St. Louis, San Diego, Portland, Austin, Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona and Barranquilla.
[1] In addition to painting she founded the Galería Antonio Souza with Juan Soriano, Rufino Tamayo, Gerzso and Manuel Felguérez, which supported Generación de la Ruptura artists.
[8] While Carrillo was studying at La Esmeralda, she rejected abstract art, with her work heavily influenced by the dominant Mexican School of painting.
[4][5] She was part of the Generación de la Ruptura along with Vicente Rojo, Francisco Corzas, José Luis Cuevas and others.
[3] This resulted in much criticism from the old guard but some of the older generation such as Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Mérida and Juan Soriano came to accept the new movement.