Isabel Riquelme

{{Short description|Former First Lady of Chile}}

{{family name hatnote|Riquelme de la Barrera or simply Riquelme|Meza|lang=Spanish}}

{{more citations needed|date=September 2013}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}

{{Infobox first lady

|name=Isabel Riquelme

|image=IsabelRiquelme.jpg

|caption=Portrait by José Gil de Castro

|office= First Lady of Chile

|term_label = In role

|term_start= February 17, 1817

|term_end= January 28, 1823

|president= Bernardo O'Higgins

|birth_name=María Isabel Riquelme de la Barrera y Meza

|birth_date= {{birth year|1758}}

|birth_place=Chillán, Captaincy General of Chile, Spanish Empire

|death_date={{death date and age|1839|04|21|1758}}

|death_place=Lima, Peru

|spouse={{marriage|Félix Rodríguez y Rojas|1780|1782|end=d.}}
Manuel de Puga y Figueroa

|children={{plainlist|

• Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme (illegitimate)
• Rosa Rodríguez y Riquelme
• Nieves de Puga y Riquelme

}}

|parents=Simón Riquelme de la Barrera y Goycochea
María Mercedes de Mesa y Ulloa

}}

María Isabel Riquelme de la Barrera y Meza (1758 – April 21, 1839), was the mother of Chilean independence leader Bernardo O'Higgins. Isabel Riquelme was of Basque descent.{{Cite web |url=http://www.euzkoetxeachile.cl/libros/09-imaginariosvascosdesdechile.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002095156/http://www.euzkoetxeachile.cl/libros/09-imaginariosvascosdesdechile.pdf |archive-date=October 2, 2013 |url-status=dead }}

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 19, she became pregnant by 58-year-old 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 (Chillán, August 30, 1781 – Lima, 1850). 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.