Early life and schooling

Pinto was born in San José, but spent most of her youth on a farm in San Rafael de Guatuso

San Rafael de Guatuso

San Rafael is the capital city of the canton of Guatuso in the province of Alajuela in Costa Rica. It is also the name of the distrito that includes the city...

, a time that demonstrated to her the harsh conditions of the working classes and those in lower economic levels. Her secondary schooling was at the Colegio Superior de Señoritas in San José. She then entered the Universidad de Costa Rica where she obtained a degree in philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

.

After her graduation in Costa Rica, Pinto enrolled at the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where she studied the sociology of literature

Sociology of literature

Sociology of literature is a subfield of Sociology of culture. It studies the social production of literature and its social implications. A notable example is Pierre Bourdieu's 1992 Les Règles de L'Art: Genèse et Structure du Champ Littéraire, translated by Susan Emanuel as Rules of Art: Genesis...

.

Career

Pinto founded and became the first director of the Escuela de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje (School of Literature and Language Studies) at the Universidad Nacional de Heredia. During that same time she served in several public-service areas (e.g. IMAS, PANI, ITCO, and Editorial Costa Rica), motivated solely by her desire to improve society.

Pinto has served as professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of Hispanic literature at the University of San Ramón.

Prizes and awards

• Premio Nacional Aquileo J. Echeverría (novela) — 1969
• Premio Nacional Aquileo J. Echeverría (cuento) — 1970 and 1994
• Premio Nacional de Cultura Magón — 1996

The written works of Pinto tend to be philosophical in nature. Her historical novel Tata Pinto concerns the life of her ancestor Antonio Pinto.