Beatriz González Aranda was the third daughter of Clementina Aranda Mantilla and Valentín González Rangel, a politician from Barichara. She was born on November 16, 1932 in Bucaramanga, Santander, and studied at the Franciscan School of the Holy Trinity. In 1956 she entered Colombia’s National University in Bogotá to study architecture with three other women. Two years later she decided to suspend her studies, returned to Bucaramanga and worked designing window displays and sets for parades. She returned to Bogotá in 1959 to take a course at the Universidad de América on the Renaissance in Italy, taught by Marta Traba. That same year she enrolled in the fine arts program at the Universidad de los Andes with an interest in becoming a graphic designer.