Career
During Chile"s colonial period, she was noted for her extreme cruelty to her inquilinos, accused and tried for over 40 murders, becoming an icon of colonial abuse and oppression. She died in Santiago at the age of about 60. Her figure still lives in Chilean popular culture as the epitome of the perverse and abusive woman, as well as the oppression of Spanish rule.
Catalina de los Ríos was of Spanish and German descent.
Danish composer Lars Graugaard composed an opera based on her. Graugaard"s opera Louisiana Quintrala for five singers and interactive computer was premiered September 2, 2004 in Copenhagen.
Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, wrote Los Lisperguer y Louisiana Quintrala (1877) about her.