The Emigrant's Mother: the Bronze Woman Waving Goodbye at El Rinconín

The Emigrant's Mother is a bronze sculpture by Ramón Muriedas unveiled on 18 September 1970 at El Rinconín, at the end of Gijón's seafront promenade. Locals call her «La lloca'l Rinconín»; she is about four metres tall and since June 2026 has been lit at night.

At the end of Gijón's seafront promenade, at El Rinconín, a bronze woman raises her hand towards the sea, her hair and dress pushed by the wind. She is the Madre del Emigrante, the Emigrant's Mother, by Ramón Muriedas, and hardly anyone in Gijón calls her that: she is «La lloca'l Rinconín» or «La mujerona». She was unveiled in 1970 to remember the mothers who watched their children leave for America, and her story has as many blows as the story of emigration itself.

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A farewell in bronze

Wikipedia describes her like this: a woman with wild hair, her dress pressed against her body by the wind, her hand outstretched in farewell and her gaze on the sea, where her children left. She is about four metres tall, according to the local press, and is considered the first sculpture in a modern idiom placed in a public space in Gijón.

The nickname says a lot about how the city received her. «Lloca» means mad in Asturian: a woman alone, dishevelled, shouting goodbye to the Cantabrian Sea.

Twelve years to decide what a mother looked like

The idea was born in 1958, at the first Congress of Asturian Societies, when a monument to emigrants' mothers was proposed to the mayor. The city council and the Cuban consulate set up a committee, and in 1964 a competition for Spanish-American artists was announced, which received almost a hundred models and sketches. But there was no money, no agreed site and no rules for choosing a winner, and everything stalled.

In 1967 the work was commissioned from Ramón Muriedas, and his sketches were criticised as «excessively modern». Many people expected the mother of old, in traditional Asturian dress: long skirt, headscarf, shawl and wooden clogs. In 1969 the city council put up the money and El Rinconín was chosen, because the Cerro de Santa Catalina, the first site considered, was still a military zone.

A monument nobody liked

It was unveiled on 18 September 1970, during the fifth World Congress of Asturian Societies, on a plain pedestal intended to be temporary; the mayor even said it might end up on the Alto de La Providencia. That month La Nueva España ran the headline «A monument that does not please». People expected a classical sculpture and got a modern woman, alone in the wind.

Today it is the other way round: she is one of the Gijón monuments with the most visitor reviews on TripAdvisor.

Blows, storms and repairs

In 1976 an explosive device damaged the lower part of the sculpture and a storm nearly toppled it; it was removed and did not return until the eighties. In the nineties, when the promenade was redone, the pedestal was replaced and the statue was set on the small raised square where it stands now, reached by a short flight of steps.

In 2004 it was fully restored, because fingers were missing from the right hand and its internal structure had rusted, and in 2012 it had to be repaired again after an act of vandalism. Since June 2026 it has been lit: four spotlights set into the ground light it at night, and the sculptor's son has said the light will also help protect it.

Walking there

It stands at El Rinconín, on the Avenida de Rosario Acuña, where the seafront promenade ends. The city's walking guide measures the walk from Poniente to El Rinconín at 5,390 metres, an hour and a half on foot, with the whole bay of Gijón in front of you.

The coastal path from El Rinconín to La Ñora, towards the eastern cliffs, also starts at the statue. And at night she is no longer in the dark: since June 2026 four spotlights light her up.

Checked

Facts checked in October 2026 against: Wikipedia (La madre del emigrante), Planomato (lighting of the sculpture, June 2026), Gijón City Council (Sendas verdes por el concejo de Gijón walking guide) and Turismo Asturias (La Senda del Cervigón en Gijón).