Born in Sabadell, María Salvo was arrested in Madrid in 1941 for her involvement in clandestine activities and subsequently imprisoned at Les Corts prison in Barcelona at the age of 20. In 1943, she was transferred to the Ventas prison in Madrid, and the following year she was tried and sentenced to thirty years in prison, of which she served sixteen. After being held in the prisons of Ventas, Segovia, and Alcalá de Henares, she was released in 1957, with the explicit prohibition of returning to Barcelona and its province.

Upon her return to Barcelona, Maria continued her political activism with the PSUC and participated in the founding of the Catalan Association of Former Political Prisoners. In 1997, she collaborated in the creation of the "Les Dones del 36" (The Women of 1936) association, which that same year was awarded the Maria Aurèlia Capmany Prize by the Barcelona City Council.

Recordings of her testimonies are available in a video produced by the Official Cinema School of Barcelona, with the assistance of Mercè Vilanova and Mercedes Fernández-Martorell (1998), as well as in Mujeres de 1936 by Ana Martínez and Llum Quiñonero (1999). Maria Salvo was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Polytechnic University of Barcelona in 2004 and received the Cross of Sant Jordi, the highest distinction from the Government of Catalonia, in 2005.

In 2007, the Madrid-based band LABOCA composed a series of hip-hop tracks based on testimonies of women imprisoned at Les Corts, including Maria’s, in a piece titled "Les Corts. 1941." These works were created by integrating popular songs from the two periods, such as Tatuaje.

On May 27, 2020, to mark her 100th birthday and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Barcelona City Council and the Ateneu Memòria Popular organized an event in her honor via videoconference. Maria passed away in Barcelona on November 16, 2020.