While still very young, her family moved to Panama City,[2] at that time still part of Isthmus Department, a subdivision of Gran Colombia .

[4] In order to combat the high rate of illiteracy existing in the country, in 1948 Sotillo directed the first mass literacy campaign aimed primarily at Panamas adult population, for which she drew up teaching curricula called ALAS, which were published in the Daily Panama America and La Estrella de Panamá.

[5] She was active in the vehement and ultimately successful nationalist opposition to the Filos-Hines Agreement of 1947,[6][7] a military convention ratified by the Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Filos, and the Ambassador of the United States, General Frank T. Hines, both acting under the approval of their respective presidents: Enrique Adolfo Jiménez and Harry S. Truman.

The convention would have granted a ten-year renewable period for the United States to operate military bases in over a dozen locations in Panama.

She consistently rejected offers of promotions or other such advancements - both academic and political, including legislative positions in the National Assembly.