News of Villa becoming the first woman lawyer of Bolivia was published in feminist journals and carried in the Bulletin of the Pan American Union. Over the next ten years, she worked with the attorneys and inmates in the Public Prison. During the Chaco War (1932–1935), she trained as a nurse and provided aid on the battlefield to the wounded. On 2 January 1938, Villa returned to the Superior Court in Oruro to request her examination as a trial lawyer (abogado). Again, she passed the examination, but when she applied for her new license, Villa was advised that under Article 15 of the Law of Judicial Organization confirmed by the Supreme Court of Bolivia, women, as well as people who were deaf or unable to speak were barred from becoming trial lawyers. Once again, she fought the ruling and was finally awarded her license on 22 January 1938.
