author
Inés E. de (Inés Echeverría) Larraín
1868–1949
A pioneering Chilean writer who published under the memorable pseudonym Iris, Inés Echeverría brought travel, spirituality, social criticism, and women’s rights into the literary life of early twentieth-century Chile. Her work combined an aristocratic upbringing with a bold determination to challenge the limits placed on women.
1 Audiobook
Tierra virgen
by Inés E. de (Inés Echeverría) Larraín
About the author
Inés Echeverría Bello, also known as Inés Echeverría de Larraín, was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1868 and died there in 1949. A descendant of Andrés Bello, she grew up in an influential aristocratic family and received a traditional education in languages, music, religion, and domestic arts. She married army captain Joaquín Larraín Alcalde in 1892 and had four daughters.
She began publishing seriously at age 37, first anonymously with Hacia el Oriente (1905), inspired by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Writing mainly as Iris, she produced novels, essays, travel writing, journalism, criticism, and memoir. Her work appeared in publications including El Mercurio, La Nación, Familia, and Zig-Zag, and she became one of the most important literary voices among Chilean women of her time.
Echeverría also supported women’s education, reading, cultural participation, and emancipation through groups such as the Club de Señoras de Santiago and the Círculo de Lectura. In 1925 she was recognized as the first woman academic at the University of Chile. Her final book signed with her own name, Por él (1934), was a powerful work of testimony and protest following the murder of her daughter Rebeca.