Social Realism grew out of a growing concern with the poverty of urban and rural communities in the world. In general, the movement emphasized political views over artistic values.  The pictorial work of Emilia Ortiz dealt easily with the social issues of daily life in the streets, plazas and markets of Tepic, and she exposed the poverty in which the inhabitants lived, in a natural way.

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Still, to better appreciate the work of Doña Emilia, one must penetrating further into subtle areas of her poetic interior: the limited historic art styles of realism and folklore soon blur and transmute into forms moving well beyond the themes of any one artistic movement.

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Abstract from Emilia Ortiz, Pintora del siglo XX. Lourdes Pacheco Ladrón de Guevara, Miguel González Lomelí and Juan Ávila Lamas. Gobierno del Estado de Nayarit/ CONACULTA.2011