Her first international selection came at the age of fifteen and she managed fourth place in the long jump at the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games. She rose to prominence the following year – at the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo she took fifth in the long jump and helped set a Cuban record in the 4 × 100 metres relay of 46.44 seconds alongside Romay, Cobián and Nereida Borges. She added to this with a fourth-place finish in the long jump and a relay bronze at the 1963 Summer Universiade. That year she achieved her first national record in the long jump, clearing in June (to beat Bertha Díaz's 1962 CAC Games-winning mark by one centimetre), then improving further to one week later. Her fourth national record of the year came that December, as she was part of a Cuban relay quartet that ran 46.2 seconds.