Isabel Alvarado López was born in the village of San Nicolas, Portuguesa State, Venezuela, on 9 August 1911. Her father was a rancher whose lands were outside the city of Guanare (also in Portuguesa). She was the eldest of seven siblings, all of whom she outlived. She lost her mother when she was about three or four years old and her father remarried, and from that union five children were born. She grew up in the city of Guanare.

Alvarado López worked as a teacher until she met her first husband. At the age of about 28 (or 29), she moved to Caracas, where her only daughter, Duilia, was born in 1941. Her husband, Rafael Bordón, died in 1953. They were already separated when he died. She worked in the Ministry of Public Works, in charge of the pharmacy at the Santa Ana Clinic, at the Agricultural and Livestock Bank, and lastly, at the Ministry of Communications (today called Infrastructure) until her retirement.

Isabel Alvarado López passed away in Caracas, Venezuela, on 12 December 2023, at the age of 112 years, 125 days.