After teaching for a few years at UNM he enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles where he worked on his doctorate in Spanish literature.

Sabine Ulibarri is known widely for his use of language when crafting his stories, and the use of details of rural New Mexican Spanish and Native American life.

His books, Mi Abuela Fumaba Puros (My Grandmother Smoked Cigars)' and 'Mi Caballo Mago (My Wonder Horse)' and 'Tierra Amarilla: and other stories' are considered by many native New Mexican writers as quintessential examples of modern Hispanic literature and have inspired countless young Hispanics to become writers and educators.

Some argue that Sabine Ulibarri—alongside Rudolfo Anaya – was one of the great thinkers of modern Hispanic literature who was grounded in what would be termed the 'old ways.'

[2] María Dolores Gonzales, a colleague of Ulibarrí's in the Spanish department at UNM, ran the program for 12 years and expanded it.