Isabel Riquelme
María Isabel Riquelme de la Barrera y Meza, was the mother of Chilean independence leader Bernardo O'Higgins. Isabel Riquelme was of Basque descent.
She was born in Chillán, the second daughter of Simón Riquelme de la Barrera y Goycochea and of María Mercedes de Mesa y Ulloa. At the age of 16, she became pregnant by Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marquis of Osorno, future viceroy of Peru.
She married twice, first in 1780 to Félix Rodríguez y Rojas, by whom she had a daughter, Rosa Rodríguez y Riquelme. Her husband died in 1782 and she married her second husband, Manuel de Puga y Figueroa, by whom she had another daughter named Maria de las Nieves de Puga y Riquelme in 1793.
