Ramona Coronado, known as Mónica del Raval, has died at the age of 60. With her death, another of the most popular representatives of the most diverse neighborhood in Barcelona leaves. She practiced prostitution for almost 20 years and spoke about it in the documentary that bore her name, and after leaving the profession, she continued to walk around the Raval with her bright makeup and the crown that made her popular.
Originally from Villamanrique, in La Mancha, after spending time in Madrid, she settled in Barcelona. She remained in the Raval for the rest of her life and it was common to find her around the Filmoteca de Catalunya. Her popularity was such that she was invited to direct an exhibition at the Santa Mònica Arts Center.
Mónica del Raval illustrates the contrasts and changes of Barcelona’s central district: her workplace for more than 15 years was the columns of the Liceu façade, on the Rambla. When the opera house (and meeting place of the elite) closed, prostitutes waited for clients in front of it. A few years ago, the Liceu decided to install fences to discourage prostitutes and the homeless from spending the night there.
Mónica was very fond of music, also classical, and had gone to the Liceu as a spectator, as she herself explained in one of her last public appearances. It was on Catalunya Ràdio in 2017. A year later, he began to suffer from health problems.
On public radio, Mónica spoke about the evolution of La Rambla with another legendary icon of the Barcelona promenade, the owner of the bar El Pinotxo, Joan Bayén, who died last year. Far from Bayén’s criticism of tourists, so shared by thousands of Barcelonians, Mónica recounted her own experience: “What do you want me to tell you, tourists don’t bother me. When I worked in prostitution, they paid the best and had better manners than anyone else.”
Eight years earlier, Mónica del Raval, already known for her makeup by all the passers-by in the neighborhood, had entered popular legend thanks to the documentary of the same name directed by Francesc Betriu. The work, available on Filmin, is a portrait in which Mónica occupies an absolute place and in which she defends having practiced prostitution freely and responsibly. He has also participated in other productions such as “Puta y amada” and “Nos parait important”, by Marc Ferrer.
