Spanish performer and media personality Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez, better known as La Veneno, was BOTD in 1964. Born in Adra, Almería, she was assigned male at birth and christened José Antonio Ortiz Rodríguez. Identifying as gay from an early age, she was expelled from the family home when she was 13, moving with her sister to San Pedro de Alcántara and supporting herself as a model, shop assistant and hairdresser. After winning the gay beauty pageant Mister Andalucía, she moved to Madrid, appearing on and winning the TV reality show contest Vivan los novios. Her prize, a trip to Thailand, exposed her to Thai kathoey culture, and she began identifying as transgender, renaming herself Cristina and going by the nickname La Veneno (“the poison”). She returned to Madrid, working as a sex worker to support herself and fund her gender transition. In 1996, she met TV show host Pepe Navarro in Parque del Oeste (a popular site for trans sex workers and their clients), who interviewed her for a news story on sex work. Her outrageous personality caused a sensation, leading to regular appearances on Navarro’s shows, making her one of the first well-known trans figures on Spanish television. Taking to fame with gusto, Veneno recorded the hit singles Veneno pa’ tu piel and El rap de La Veneno, appeared in multiple TV talk shows and starred in the porn films El secreto de La Veneno and La venganza de La Veneno. In 2003, she was found guilty of setting fire to her apartment to claim insurance, and imprisoned for three years. Incarcerated in a men’s prison, she later described being assaulted and raped by prison guards, and became obese. On her release, she resumed her TV career, participating in a reality show challenge to lose weight. In 2016, she released a memoir, claiming to have had sexual liaisons with a number of married politicians. She died later that year, after suffering a drug and alcohol-induced fall in her home. She was. In April 2019, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in Parque del Oeste. In 2020, her memoir was adapted into the successful TV series Veneno, starring the trans actresses Jedet, Daniela Santiago Villena and Isabel Torres as Veneno at different stages of her life. Screened during the COVID-19 pandemic and re-released as a feature film, Veneno was credited with raising public awareness about transphobia and promoting legislation to allow trans Spaniards to legally change their gender without medical evidence. In 2021, Veneno’s status as an LGBTQ icon was confirmed in a tribute during the first season of Drag Race España.