Sotera De La Mier Elorriaga (1821-1900)
She was one of the first people from Portugalete who were part of that nineteenth-century industrial bourgeoisie. Married to the businessman José de Gorostiza y Casal (1808-1876) from Sestao, she was more than a shrewd businesswoman, fighting the conventions of her time after being widowed in 1876.
She was part of the mining and steel business world of her paternal family and their partners, the Ybarra, with whom she had to become strong so that they would not marginalise her from the factory in El Carmen by eliminating her surname, Mier. 1882, after several disagreements due to bad liquidations, she abandoned the Ybarras as her manager. She entrusted her financial interests to her brother-in-law Félix Chávarri del Alisal (1831-1905), uncle of Víctor Chávarri Salazar.
She became one of the great benefactors of the Villa de Portugalete. Aware of the social problems of the orphaned daughters of the mines, she founded the Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Carmen between Abatxolo and Azeta.
She also contributed part of her capital to restore the tower of the Basilica of Santa Maria and finance its organ. As a philanthropist, she supported the nursing home of Rebonza and Mello in Sestao and was part of the Santo Hospital Asilo in Portugalete. She died without descendants on December 9, 1900, in Portugalete.
