Lady Catiria began her career at the age of 19 years in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, impersonating the Puerto Rican TV performer Iris Chacón.
[1] In the early 1980s, Lady Catiria moved to La Escuelita, a gay club located in midtown Manhattan, where she developed an extremely large following that would faithfully attend her lip-synching performances, especially on Saturday nights.
Julie Newmar, a film starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three New York drag queens who embark on a road trip.
Credited as "Catiria Reyes," she appears in the beginning of the film, in a scene in which the main characters are competing at a drag beauty pageant held at Webster Hall.
[1] Numerous drag queens and transgender performers such as Candis Cayne, Angel Sheridan, and Mistress Maddie have credited Lady Catiria for her role as a mentor and friend.
La Nueva Escuelita released a memorial VHS and DVD compilation of performances by Lady Catiria and has a prominently featured display case with her Miss Continental gown and crown.