In 1840, he served as secretary to General Mariano Arista, and when he achieved a lieutenant colonel rank was chief of a section of the Ministry of War.

Charged with involvement in the coup d'état headed by Félix Zuloaga – absent from the government of Ignacio Comonfort – he was prosecuted and removed from politics.

He wrote novels such as El fistol del diablo ("The Devil's Tiepin") (1845–1846), in which he puts fun before moral principles.

El hombre de la situación ("The Man of the Situation") (1861), a novel of customs that covers the last years of Viceroyalty of New Spain and the first ones of independent Mexico.

A costumbrista novel in which daily life details of society are depicted, comic passages abound in which a very Mexican grace and picaresque stands out.

Payno makes a long description of the environment and setting, including the background of the characters, the events revolve around all social strata of the time, an appropriate pretext to depict potentates, professionals, military, artisans, merchants, Indians, clerics and thieves.

The novel also depicts Mexico's cultural and ethnic diversity and the contrasts of lifestyles among social classes and life in the cities and the countryside.