SANTA ANA – As Juan Gabriel’s “Siempre en Mi Mente” played, Macrina Reyes wept and embraced the pink casket containing her daughter, asking for her forgiveness.

Reyes placed a white rose atop the casket of Zoraida “Ale” Reyes, a transgender woman who was found dead more than a week before.

“I asked her for forgiveness because I didn’t tell her how much I loved her,” her mother said in Spanish after her funeral Monday morning.

More than 100 friends and relatives gathered at Fairhaven Memorial Park for services honoring Reyes, a 28-year-old described as a humble and bold advocate for both the undocumented and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

Her casket rested among white, pink and blue pastel roses — the colors of the transgender flag. Activists with DeColores Queer Orange County, an organization that works to empower Latinos in the LGBT community, stood beside her mother during the service.

Reyes of Santa Ana was found dead about 11 a.m. June 12 behind a Dairy Queen in the 200 block of North State College Boulevard, Anaheim police said. The official cause of death has not been determined.

Detectives found evidence suggesting that Reyes did not die where she was found. Her death has been ruled suspicious.

Reyes’ friends have said they see her death as a hate crime, while police have urged the community not to form assumptions. At a Los Amigos of Orange County meeting in Anaheim on June 18, Anaheim Police Chief Raul Quezada asked that the community keep an open mind about the investigation, which he referred to as a homicide.

“Please do not form opinions as to the motive, as to the cause, because with that come emotions as to why things happen,” said Quezada at the meeting. “This is a homicide we are investigating. It’s very, very tragic as any death in our community (is), regardless of the cause.”

After her death, the LGBT community in Santa Ana and across the state organized vigils in Reyes’ honor, holding signs reading “Transgender Liberation,” and mobilizing online under the #translivesmatter hashtag.

To her family, Reyes was a fun sister and independent woman who in her teen years enjoyed trying on her younger sister’s clothes. She was the oldest of four sisters and enjoyed singing to Juan Gabriel and Gloria Trevi. Friends said she was an overachiever with aspirations of becoming a public health educator.

“When she was living with me before she turned 18, she would try on my clothes. She wasn’t fully transgender yet, but she knew that’s what she wanted to do,” said her sister, Yajaira Pompa, 21.

“She moved out and next thing you know, she was a girl and we always knew. We never saw her as bad. That’s what her spirit was.”

Activism within the LGBT community was important to Reyes because “she suffered a lot for it … she just wanted peace,” Pompa said.

Reyes was 12 when her mother brought her to the United States from Michoacan, Mexico. She went on to attend Century High School, then Santa Ana College, where she got involved with LGBT groups on campus. Shortly after, she transferred to UC Santa Barbara, where she took Chicano studies and gender and sexuality courses.

Javier Saucedo of DeColores Queer Orange County said Reyes worked two jobs in food service to pay for tuition, but eventually could not afford to go to school and decided to move back to Orange County.

“It was very difficult for her,” he said. “She came back as strong as ever to work with the community.”

Her activist community, which included DeColores and the Orange County Dream Team, was her second family, her mother said.

“I always accepted her, but I never sat down to talk to her (about her transition). That’s why I was asking her for forgiveness. I never accompanied her to her reunions. She wanted me to become involved,” her mother said.

As a transgender and undocumented woman, “she really understood the need to organize and mobilize the community,” said her friend and fellow activist Jorge Gutierrez.

“Coming from that personal experience, her struggle is connected to different people around her.”

Contact the writer: amolina@ocregister.com