He was best known for the short story collection "Tijuanenses" ("Tijuana: Stories on the Border"). In 2000, he won the Colima Prize for Fiction with his book "Transpeninsular". In 1995, he was awarded the J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship. He has translated Harold Pinter, David Mamet and Leonardo Sciascia into Spanish. He also had one son, Federico Campbell Peña who, like his father, is a writer and a journalist.