They settled in Mexico, D. F., and lived in the Ermita Building, in the district of Tacubaya.  Altolaguirre got a job as manager of the printing press of the Ministry of Education. Soon, however, he continued with his own publications and started a new collection, "Aires de mi España,” with anthologies of San Juan de la Cruz, Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora, and Quevedo. Meanwhile, he had been publishing poems, notes and essays in Mexican magazines like Hijo Pródigo, Cuadernos Americanos, and Hoy y América.

In March of 1944, Altolaguirre left Concha Méndez and moved with María Luisa Gómez Mena, who had arrived from Havana recently. They spent a few days in Taxco, in the State of Guerrero, and then settled in Tepoztlán, in the valley of Cuernavaca. In April of 1944, Altolaguirre published an anthology of his work that included, for the first time, poems written in exile: Poemas de Las islas invitadas. The book was announced as a supplement of the journal Litoral, which enjoyed a brief revival, led by Altolaguirre, Prados, José Moreno Villa, Juan Rejano, and Francisco Giner de los Ríos on the editoral board.

With the support of Gómez Mena, Altolaguirre opened a new printing company in January of 1945. Under the label Ediciones Isla, the press released four collections, with their corresponding authors: “Los clásicos” (Garcilaso and Fray Luis de León), “El siglo de oro” (Lope de Vega, Cervantes, and Ruiz de Alarcón), “Los románticos” (Zorrilla), and “Los modernos” (Bécquer, Galdós, Darío, Arniches, Unamuno, Lorca, and Bergamín). Separately from those collections, he printed works by José Moreno Villa, José Manuel Gallegos Rocafull, and Elías Nandino. Altolaguirre also published a short book of poetry, Nuevos poemas de Las islas invitadas (1946), with poems inspired by his relationship with Gomez Mena.

In February, Gómez Mena decided to go back to Havana. Her relationship with Altolaguirre seemed to have finished. In the month of April, he closed Editorial Isla. Those were difficult times for the poet. However, now supported by the printer Roberto Barrié, Altolaguirre was able to edit a major anthology, Presente de la lírica mexicana, as well as two issues of his periodical, Antología de España en el Recuerdo. Between 1947 and 1948, the poet made a living working in   journalism and other jobs related to the cinema. After an unexpected reconciliation with María Luisa Gómez Mena, in the summer of 1948, he released Fin de un amor (1949), perhaps his most important book after the Civil War. It included poems written before and after the breakup of his relationship with his Cuban wife.