Catalina Quesada escaped from Cuba by arranging passage on a ship traveling to San Cristobel. There she'd hoped to find work as a nanny so she could go to America. What she thought would be an easy trip was cut short by a raid from INS. Though she had nothing to fear, Catalina still feared for her safety. Luckily Reva Shayne and Noah Chase helped her in her journey in 2001. After learning that she had no job waiting in San Cristobel, Catalina agreed to stay in Springfield with Reva. While in town she formed friendships with Sam Spencer and Tony Santos, who were both battling for the affections of Marah Lewis, Reva's daughter. Catalina hated how Marah played both men against each other and felt that they deserved better. In time, Catalina started to fall in love with Tony, who unfortunately was in love with Marah. Believing that Marah didn't deserve Tony, Catalina let Maria Santos manipulate her into doing whatever it took to snare Tony for herself. To that end, she seduced Tony and got pregnant. When Tony believed that she was considering an abortion, he quickly offered to marry her. Catalina had already manipulated various situations to win Tony--the worst being when she circulated Marah's class essay on virginity to every student in the school, humiliating Marah and causing men to harass and even attack her. Finally, when Ben Reade took part in a bet to make Marah a "woman", Catalina entered into a reluctant partnership with him.

Catalina assumed her position as Tony's fiancée and mother of a Santos heir in 2002. In a moment of extreme stupidity, she confided her many trickeries to Maria. Maria disapproved of Marah, but realized she had another Carmen Santos on her hands with Catalina. She had already seen her late son Miguel's life ruined after he was trapped into marriage by pregnancy. Maria began giving Catalina a special herbal tea to help cure "new mother's troubled tummies." Soon enough, Catalina's nausea was cured, because she suffered a miscarriage! Ben had rushed her to the hospital, and he posed as the baby's father to keep Tony from finding out the truth. Catalina confessed her lies and manipulations to Father Ray. Although Ray, who once entertained feelings toward Catalina, had stuck by her through everything, he was disgusted by what she had become. Bound by the confessional into keeping her secret, Ray refused to perform her and Tony's wedding. When Tony pressed her as to why, Catalina lied that Ray had been sexually harassing her. After Tony didn't believe her and Ray got in trouble with the clergy, Cat changed her story, claiming Ray had said no to officiating because he knew Tony was still in love with Marah. Tony, guilt-ridden, forgave her lie. th Catalina soon realized Maria had deliberately poisoned her, in spite of Maria's denials. Catalina then tried to blackmail Ben (who had developed real feelings for Marah) into having sex with her, and was working towards convincing him to do the job when Maria walked in. She admitted to Maria that she wasn't pregnant, and threatened to go to the feds if Maria tried to stop her marriage plans. Maria kept quiet, working on plan B. Maria arranged for Marah to find out Catalina wasn't pregnant. But Marah couldn't find Tony anywhere, because a still-suspicious Tony was at Ray's retreat, trying to get the truth from Ray. While Ben stalled Marah's efforts, Catalina was devastated when Tony wanted to put their marriage plans on hold. She lied that Marah and Ben were lovers. Tony fell for the bait, and after a confrontation where Ray asked him to think of Marah, announced he would marry Cat the very next day. Moments after they had said their vows, Marah burst in with news but before she could tell the rest, Cat faked labor pains and Marah was hustled out by bodyguards. Catalina and Tony planned to go on a honeymoon to Hawaii a few days later. However, Marah refused to give up, and one night when Maria had conveniently cleared the house of all guards, arrived at the mansion. She and Catalina bitterly argued, Marah ripping the St. Antony's medal off Cat's neck because Tony had originally planned to buy it for her. Cat ran upstairs to her room to call the police. Marah followed her, and they struggled. Cat shoved her away, then watched in disbelief as Marah hit her head on a fireplace column and didn't wake up. Cat pleaded for Marah to stop her joke, to wake up. Becoming hysterical, she almost called the cops before realizing she'd be implicated. Then a familiar face (unseen by the audience) walked down the hall and into the room. Catalina was relieved, asking this person to call whoever they used to get rid of bodies. While Cat was distracted, rambling to Marah's slumbering form, the unseen figure picked up a statue. Catalina turned just in time to see the large object crashing onto her head. When Tony, who had finally learned from Ray about Cat's lies, arrived at the mansion, he found an unconscious Marah and a dead Catalina, laying side-by-side. Though Tony was initially blamed for the murder, the real murderer turned out to be Romeo Jones, who was under orders from Maria to kill Catalina.