He was a son of Jose Riquelme Orozco, the first Chilean
stenographer, and Bruna Garcia Venegas, a professor of music. He was the younger brother of Ernesto Riquelme. In 1865, his father died and his mother took over his education. He studied at the National Institute of Santiago, then law at the
University of Chile, although he subsequently abandoned his studies. or
Military Jokes, which recounted his experiences at the front, dealing with topics such as jokes, table manners and various stories. The book was edited, enhanced and then republished in the work that made him most famous,
Under the tent (1888). From 1887 to 1891, Riqueme wrote stories, chronicles and articles under the
pseudonym with which he popularly became known: Innocent Conchalí. During this period his works included his urban portraits of bohemian Santiago in the late nineteenth century, in particular around the Orphans, Merced and Recoleta streets, where he spent much of his life. His writings combined nascent modernism techniques with the metaphors and sayings drawn from the local Creole. This contributed to Chilean prose of the nineteenth century, and was adopted by later writers including
Baldomero Lillo and
Olegario Lazo Baeza. After the fall of President
José Manuel Balmaceda, Riquelme continued to work as a writer periodically, but abandoned his light and adorned style of writing to instead engage in works on various historical events, a task that continued during his years at the
El Mercurio of Santiago until 1911. Sick with
tuberculosis, Riqueme traveled to
Paris and then moved to
Switzerland. He died in
Lausanne in 1912, and his remains were interred there until 1942, when they were thrown into a
common grave. At present, the precise location of his remains is unknown. ==Work==