Mariang Maya Award
SINCE Sigma Delta Phi Sorority (ΣΔΦ) turned 50 years old in 1983, the Mariang Maya Award has been a way to celebrate and honor outstanding members. Editha “Nenet” Lazo-Arambulo Batch ’53 and Betty Go Belmonte ’52 were president and vice president respectively of the grand event, made possible by the work of many dedicated sisters. Every five years since then, sisters have been nominating sisters as a mark of peer recognition. The Award was conceived to inspire integrity, credibility, and holistic personal development.
The Sorority is committed to ensure intellectual growth and social responsibility for family, community, and society. This is reflected in the Award whose winners all represent Sigma Delta Phi’s capacity for transformation, respect for institutional history, and empowerment of Filipino womanhood. The list of awardees
The Award is named after the original musicale-zarzuela produced by the sorority in 1953 and revived in 1962. “Mariang Maya” was written by the acclaimed poet and playwright Virginia R. Moreno (1923-2021).
Sigma Delta Phi, which is a Greek acronym for “Society of Dramatics and Fine Arts,” continues to be an incubator for excellence beyond the arts and humanities, such as in advocacy advertising, broadcast communication, information technology, the sciences, economics, government service, law, social justice, home economics, restaurant and hotel management, community development, entrepreneurship, hospice care, biotechnology, environmental conservation, natural sciences, poverty alleviation, and urban development.
The original Mariang Maya trophy which was given to awardees was designed and executed by Napoleon Abueva (1930-2018), the “Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture” and recognized as National Artist for Sculpture in 1975.
The trophy, given from 1983 to 2008 and again in 2018, depicts a Filipino woman with flowing tresses and a wind-blown skirt. In her cupped hands, she holds a maya, the common Eurasian tree sparrow. The first statuettes were carved from Philippine narra, but as the wood became rarer and more costly, Abueva agreed to prepare the mold for a resin variation.
Awardees of 2013 were gifted a singular statuette designed by multi-disciplinary artist Maria Pureza Escano. The statuette was made of high-grade fiber-glass and inspired by her eight-foot sculpture “The Rose of Marya: A Sculptural Icon Celebrating 100 Years of Service through Excellence by the Women of the University of the Philippines.” The piece was unveiled in March 2012 at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños.
For recipients of the Award in 2023, Mulawin Abueva supervised the recreation of his father’s original work at the Abueva Studio.
