Ernesto Torrealba was a Chilean teacher, writer and critic. He was born in Chépica, province of Colchagua.
Son of Miguel Ramón Torrealba Valenzuela and Dona Anatilde Contreras Valenzuela (sister of Francisco Contreras Valenzuela, also writer, deceased in Paris). He studied French in Santiago, was a teacher and mentor to Pablo Neruda (who dedicated his Nobel Prize "to my French teacher who is already in heaven") and a whole generation of Chilean poets and writers. He married in Paris with Maria Moreira (Nenê), the one that after becoming widow contracted second marriage in Brazil with Hermes Lima, being First Lady of that country. Ernesto had a son with Nenê, Gonçalo Torrealba, who was born on October 14, 1926. Ernesto Torrealba died in Paris at the age of 33.
Among his works include "Sentimental Paris and Sinner" (1925) and The Country of the Emerald (1926). Both edited in France.
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