After the arrest of their brothers and the death of their younger sister, along with their continued mistreatment by the Spanish authorities and society, Maruxa and Coralia fell into poverty and succumbed to mental disorder.

From the 1950s to the late 1970s, they took a daily stroll through the old town of Santiago de Compostela [gl], made up and dressed in eccentric costumes, while flirting with young university students.

Maruxa and Coralia died during the Spanish transition to democracy, but became local icons in Santiago de Compostela due to their stories and character.

They have been represented by a famous sculpture in Santiago's Alameda Park, the subject of a documentary about the mark they left on the city, and a source of analysis in Galician gender studies due to the violence committed against them.

[1] Maruxa, Coralia, and Sarita frequently went on walks together,[3] strolling through the streets of Santiago dressed in home-made clothes of brightly coloured fabrics.

[1] Xosé Henrique Rivadulla Corcón [gl], the author of a 2008 documentary on the sisters, said that this continued ill-treatment was the principal cause of the mental illness they both came to suffer.

[3] The two sisters fell into poverty after town residents stopped ordering from the sewing shop of the "anarchist family", for fear of linking themselves to the Fandiños.

Those who wanted to help them did not give them alms directly, but bought food, especially in the Carro import shop, located in the Plaza del Toural.

Always emaciated and with no remaining teeth, they dressed up in light and colour, and plastered themselves in thick make-up consisting of rice powder, blush and lipstick.

Every day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, marked by the Berenguela bell of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, the two went for a walk through the city.

In May 2014, due to the degradation of the graves, the Ateneo de Santiago association organised a popular collection[10] that raised funds to rehabilitate the tomb, inter their mortal remains together as they wanted, and place a plaque of remembrance.

[4] The opinion of the author of the documentary is that for the "many people who felt suffocated by the regime and who did not rebel for fear of reprisals", the sisters played, possibly unknowingly, a fundamental role in "that cry for freedom" from the repression under Francoism.

Representation of female identity in the media; a research project in gender studies that she had carried out at the Jaume I University as part of her Master's degree.

When analysing the news that appeared about the two Marías after their respective deaths, Sánchez pointed out that the women suffered "institutional and social ... gender violence", the context of which has "remained poorly explained to this day".