Married at eighteen to Sr D. Jos Quiroga, a Galician country gentleman, she interested herself in politics, and is believed to have taken an active part in the underground campaign against Amadeo of Spain and, later, against the republic. In 1876 she came into notice as the successful competitor for a literary prize offered by the municipality of Oviedo, the subject of her essay being the Benedictine monk, Benito Jerónimo Feijoo. This was followed by a series of articles inserted in "La Ciencia cristiana", a magazine of the purest orthodoxy, edited by Juan M. Orti y plana.