Before migrating, Clara Espinosa studied medicine at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, and when she came to Australia she found employment as a drugs and alcohol counsellor.
In Australia, Espinosa published a series of 48 articles, in 1990 and 1991, in the newspaper El Español en Australia, writing of a character she called 'Woggy Girl.' This writing process, she says, helped her move through the three stages of mourning she associates with the experience of migration. (From The Flying Carnation, p. 130.) In October 1991, she began a column under the name 'Mujer' [Woman, in Spanish] in which she reflected on migrant experiences from a woman's point of view.
Together with her daughter, Clara Maldonado, Clara Espinosa also wrote as Madreperla or Madre y Perla for publications including 30 Dias and Hontanar.
