Born in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. She is of Chinese ancestry. During her childhood, Lilia helped with household expenses by selling souvenirs to tourists. She would eventually go on to work as a waitress in a restaurant where she met her first husband, a Mexican sailor, with whom she settled in Mexico City. After five years of marriage and the birth of their two daughters, Lilia separated from her husband alleging domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Back in Acapulco, Lilia began to work in the cabaret El Zorro, as a dancer. Eventually she worked at the Tropicana cabaret in Acapulco, where she alternated with the popular Mexican comedian Germán Valdés "Tin Tan".
After her successful season with Tin Tan, Lilia traveled to Mexico City, where television presenter Raul Velasco hired her as a dancer in the program Siempre en Domingo. There, she joined the program's ballet, headed by the popular vedette Olga Breeskin. On the TV show, Lilia learned, with a professional instructor, to dance tribal, Hawaiian, and Tahitian dances.
In 1970, Lilia was hired by the businessman Enrique Lombardini, who at that time managed the Teatro Esperanza Iris. However, the young dancer was not prepared for the kind of burlesque shows that were taking place in the city theater. According to Lyn May, the first day she stepped on the stage of the Teatro Iris, she was heavily booed by attendees, who, accustomed to the artistic nudes of vedettes like Gloriella and Cleopatra, protested the musical number of the young aspirant to vedette.

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