Manzanilla was born in
Manhattan, New York City, on January 25, 1951. Her father was
Víctor Manzanilla Schaffer, a diplomat and politician who later became
Governor of Yucatán, while her mother, Roby Naim, was a translator for the
United Nations. In 1970 she entered the
National School of Anthropology and History () where she received a degree in archaeology. She worked as a research assistant in the Department of Prehistory of the
National Institute of Anthropology and History from 1972 to 1977. In 1979 she obtained a master's degree in anthropological sciences and graduated
magna cum laude. She traveled to Paris to pursue a third-cycle doctorate in Egyptology from 1979 to 1982, at
Paris-Sorbonne University. She is a researcher at the Anthropological Research Institute of the
National Autonomous University of Mexico. Manzanilla has excavated in Mexico, particularly at
Teotihuacan and
Cobá (1983 y 1984); in Xalasco, Tlaxcala (2008);
Monte Albán, Oaxaca (1973);
Abasolo, Guanajuato (1973);
Lake Texcoco (1972) and
Santa Marta, Chiapas (1973). Internationally she has excavated in
Tiwanaku (Bolivia) as part of a project of the
University of Chicago (1988–1989);
Medinet Madi (Egypt) as part of the Italian Archaeological Missions of the
University of Rome (1978),
Arslantepe (Eastern
Anatolia) as part of the Italian Archaeological Missions of the
University of Rome (1976, 1984, 1989, 1996 and 2013) and
Magdala (Israel) as consultant of the Project Magdala (2010 and 2012). From 2000 to 2003 she co-directed the Xalla Palace Project at Teotihuacan, State of Mexico, with
Leonardo López Luján and
William Fash. Her main efforts have focused on the early cities, the daily life of the inhabitants of
Teotihuacan, and their functionally distinct assemblages and spaces (Xalla, Teopancazco, Oztoyahualco and the tunnels to the east of the Pyramid of the Sun); in this pyramid she has applied state-of-the-art technology such as the
muon detector with . In the city of
Cobá, Quintana Roo, she conducted research on domestic life in
classic Maya sites. ==Memberships==