Valdés was already an established printer, having maintained his own print shop from 1808 to 1814. In 1815 he acquired the business of his famed father, Manuel Antonio Valdés y Munguía. The elder Valdés had been the printer for the Jesuit College of San Ildefonso until 1767. In that year he joined Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros, at that time the largest printer in the Americas. While he was associated with Zúñiga y Ontiveros, Valdés y Munguía was the editor of the "Gaceta de México", after its reestablishment in 1784.