Riquelme had been the firstborn and her brother Joaquinillo followed in 1849. Her parents had a third child – Blanca Riquelme y Zayas – who was born in 1853 but died before Christmas in 1854. The couple then had their fourth child in 1854, who died not long after birth in Madrid. It was following the death of their pregnant mother (who died on 28 June 1855 in Granada due to an outbreak of cholera) that she and Joaquinillo moved with their father into the home of their maternal grandparents. On 5 August 1863 her father received an appointment to Madrid but Joaquinillo suffered from a chronic lung disease, and so Joaquín asked to be posted to the Canary Islands in the hope that his son would recover in a milder climate. But his condition worsened and so the three relocated to Seville where Joaquinillo died on 2 May 1866 (or 14 July 1865 as other sources suggest). It was after this that her father was sent to La Coruña where he was posted during the 1868 Liberal Revolution that saw the dethronement of Isabella II. Her father sent her to Madrid to live with his sister Pepa while he was sent into exile in Lisbon in Portugal.