[2] Her father was born in Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, and moved from Haiti to Santiago in 1870 to work as a German, English, and Italian translator.

She recalled that her mother taught her the tenths of Juan Antonio Alix and reading from her favorite book, La Historia Sagrada.

With the Junta Patriótica de Damas,[9] led by Floripez Mieses, Abigail Mejía, Luisa Ozema Pellerano and Ercilia Pepín, Smester was one of many women who publicly agitated against the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, which took place between 1916 and 1924.

[...] There is an unusual fact, a monster against which we will forever clamor: the landing of American troops in our country under the guise of friends and protectors, to strip us of our rights and our holy freedom.

[18] Smester contributed to a broader feminist position that pacifist strategies disqualify androcentric warmongering, thereby including female voices in war discourses, such that "honoring and glorifying enlightened men is a form of patriotic love".

[19] In her 1929 article Así Es, Smester praised Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal's intellectual attributes, which lent him to be an "enlightened" feminist man.

[20][21] In her Escrito Pro-Feminismo, Smester wrote that feminism has proven to be "essentially constructive", tending "to widen the sphere of action of the woman, to bring into play the activity of her spirit, to develop all her capacity", all without harming "the home and family".

[22] In a conference speech to the cultural society Renovación of Puerto Plata, Smester explained her view that feminism "tries to intensify the femininity in women".

[23] In her Elogio a la Madre, Smester wrote that while a woman can be unsurpassable as a teacher or pharmacist, her "highest glory and most certain triumph" is as a mother.

[23] She advocated complementary gender roles:[2] For feminism to be fruitful, women should be very feminine and not domineering, different and equivalent to men, like two feet for the perfect walk.In Una Educacionista Notable, Smester praised the work of Josefa Goméz, an "enlightened and self-sacrificing" teacher who directed the graduate school at Salcedo, whom Smester credited for increasing the city's level of education.

[2][1] During her life, the El Regional newspaper of Monte Cristi asked Smester to be honored as the 'Illustrious Daughter' of the city "as a teacher, mother, and fighter".

[36] Smester also taught Dominican artist Federico Izquierdo,[37] a fellow member and later President of the Amantes de la Luz society,[6] who was greatly pained by her death.

[38] A 1982 poem by Dominican poet Armando Oscar paid tribute to Smester: "[She] went towards the conquest of ethical values [...] On her heart, she carried a crucifix [...] She was a woman, a believer above all else \ And God crowned her with the pain of a son!