Daughter of the Peruvian Andes, and the first of the eleven children of Dámaso Rivas and Modesta López. She was born on June 13, 1920, in Coracora (Ayacucho Province, Peru, known as the “corner of the dead”). Her parents provided their children with an environment of faith, piety, humility, understanding, and service, especially towards the poor. Antonia Luzmila was baptized 11 days after her birth at the parish of her small town. In 1933, in Lima, she entered the Instituto Sevilla, run by the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, where poor girls were housed and educated.