She received a degree in History of the Americas at the
Complutense University of Madrid. She moved to Mexico City where she earned a
Master's degree in
Pedagogy, graduating with the thesis "Female education in New Spain: Colleges, Convents and Girls' Schools" and a
Doctorate in History at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the
National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 1980 she worked as a professor and researcher at the Center for Historical Studies of
El Colegio de México, of which she was academic coordinator from 1989 to 2001. Additionally, she taught at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, at the
Ibero-American University (UIA) and at the
National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH). She was a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the Association of Latin American Historians and the
Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). She was a researcher for the National System of Researchers, and was appointed
Emeritus researcher since 2006. She was a member of the Science Advisory Council of the Presidency of the Republic. She is considered the leading specialist in the history of education in the Viceroyalty of New Spain; the value of her research in this area is her great knowledge of the history of Iberian and New Spain pedagogical institutions and ideas, such as
Humanism. She is noted for her work on the history of the family in the colonial period, as well as observing the role of women in the
history of Mexico. She is the introducer in Mexico of the
Historiographic perspective, of French origin, which is known as the history of everyday life. Her research is supported by archive sources, such as: Archivo General de la Nación de México (AGN), Archivo del Arzobispado de México,
General Archive of the Indies, Archive of the National Library of Mexico (BNM), archive of the Historical Archive of Mexico City. In her various works, her archival work and how she interpreted the information can be observed, making with it several specialized books on the history of women, castes, their education, and their role in daily life, as well as the education of the
Jesuits. Dr. Gonzalbo's interests focus on topics related to cultural history: family, women, education, daily life, and history of emotions. Her nine books of personal authorship refer to these themes. Additionally, she has edited or coordinated more than twenty collective works alongside the seminar on the history of everyday life, in which she has worked together with the group that has collaborated for more than two decades. She was the author, editor, and coordinator of a series of books and numerous articles and book chapters in which she addresses the subject of history, mainly in the colonial period. Her works include the series "History of daily life in Mexico" published by
Fondo de Cultura Económica and El Colegio de México in five volumes, with the collaboration of leading specialists on the subject. In 2016, she ventured into massive open online courses (MOOC) with the course "History of daily life", produced by the Digital Education Program of El Colegio de México under the Mexico X platform. This massive open online course had 6,421 people enrolled, of which 1,341 completed all the evaluations in a timely manner. ==Distinctions and recognitions==