Maria Acosta was born on August 15, 1906 in Mexico. Around 1914, her family moved to Columbus, New Mexico, where she would witness Pancho Villa's incursion into the United States in 1916. In 1925 she married Epimenio Duran in Los Angeles. That same year, they had a daughter, Margarita, and a year or two later, a son, Eloy. Maria filed for divorce in 1935. She worked in the garment industry and, going to night school, earned her high school diploma in 1940.

She was involved with the Aliana Hispano-Americana, a mutual aid society and insurance company for Mexican Americans. She was active with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. She served as treasurer for the Community Service Organization, a civil rights group where she worked with future congressman Edward Roybal, among others. She was so central to the CSO's operations that the group actually used her home address as its business adress for a time.

In 1950 she married Charles H. Lang. At some point, they moved to Lancaster, California, where she opened a cafe called Don Carlos. She was at times the only woman on the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. There is evidence that she remained politically active with the Chicano Moratorium in 1970. She died on February 26, 1988 in Lancaster.