[2] This situation, along with the physical and psychological abuse that she got from her family led her to leave home and go to live in Barcelona, determined as she was not to give up her identity.

She sought work in hotels, given her experience over the last seven years, but Reyes, who had begun her hormone therapy in 1974 "with products that I was buying at a pharmacy", was systematically rejected for having a female appearance and a male name.

[8] As the law on dangerousness and social rehabilitation required those found guilty to go into exile, when Reyes had completed her sentence and was released in late 1975, she had to leave Catalonia, although she thereafter came back to Barcelona once a month.

[13] Their testaments appear in Extremaduran journalist Raúl Solís's book La doble transición (2019), together with other transsexual women who raised their voices against the Franco régime's and the transition era's repression.

"[10] On 28 May 2024, six days after Reyes's death, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, announced that the well-known transgender activist would be posthumously awarded the city's Medal of Honour.