Her early career took place in the aviation industry. She was a head flight attendant for Aeroméxico between 1998 and 2000 and served in the sector's labor union, the Asociación Sindical de Sobrecargos de Aviación. She was its press secretary from 1989 to 1991 and its secretary general from 1995 to 2001. She led Aeroméxico's flight attendants on strike in 1998 and again in 2001. She also helped to found the National Workers' Union in 1997 and was the secretary general of the Federation of Unions of Businesses of Goods and Services from 1997 to 2000. After 2001, Barrales shifted gears and moved into politics. The PRD placed her on their party list ofproportional representation federal deputies for the LVIII Legislature, which met between 2000 and 2003 and where she served as a secretary on the Labor and Social Welfare Commission. Barrales fully joined the PRD in 2002, the same year she briefly served as a social welfare coordinator in the government of Michoacán. In 2003, voters sent Barrales to the III Legislature of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District. She was the PRD faction's spokeswoman in the legislature and sat on five commissions including Government, Public Security, Political-Electoral Matters, Sports, and Administration Committee. After her 2006 campaign to head the delegation of Benito Juárez failed, the PRD placed her in the Mexico City government as the secretary of tourism. Two years later, she was tapped to head the PRD in the Federal District and resigned her position as tourism secretary. Also at this time, in 2007, Barrales obtained her law degree from the Universidad Mexicana. From 2009 to 2012, Barrales returned to the ALDF in its V Legislature and was the PRD's parliamentary coordinator in that legislature; she also presided over the Government Commission. While she was in the legislature, she created a scholarship program intended to benefit 45,000 youth; instead, El País reported in 2013, only 2,700 kids had received the scholarship, and 250 million pesos that were in a corresponding trust had disappeared. While she sought to run for mayor of Mexico City in 2012, she eventually pulled out of the internal discussions to clear a path for Miguel Ángel Mancera. Voters sent Barrales back to the federal legislature, this time as a senator, for the LXII and LXIII Legislatures, giving her a six-year term between 2012 and 2018. She presided over the Radio and Television Commission and also served on the Guiding Council for the Pacto por México. However, she left the Senate in August 2015 when she was tapped to become the education secretary of Mexico City; her alternate, Martha Angélica Tagle Martínez, took her seat in the Senate. On 15 July 2016, Barrales resigned from the Mexico City government; the next day, the PRD elected Barrales as its new president, replacing Agustín Basave Benítez, who had resigned the month before. She will fill out Basave's term, which runs until 2017. She is currently running as a candidate for the Head of Government of Mexico City under the coalition "Por México al Frente."
Personal life
Barrales has one biological daughter, Máxima. She also raises her niece Estefanía, of whom she obtained custody when her brother Esteban divorced. In 2006, the men's magazineRevista H para Hombres named Barrales "one of the sexiest politicians in Mexico".
