Luis Maya, a member of the murga Los Mamelucos, and the Tutelar Sonsoles Soriano Foundation have been honoured with the Santa Cruz Sin Límites 2024 awards. The mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, alongside the Councilor for Social Action, Charín González, presented these annual accolades yesterday, which are bestowed by the City Council through the Municipal Institute of Social Care (IMAS) in recognition of the International Day of Disability, commemorated next Tuesday. The awards were conferred at the Art and Disability gala held at the Guimerá Theatre in the capital.
The recipients of the Santa Cruz Sin Límites 2024 award, in the individual category, were Luis Maya El Medusa, a longstanding member of the murga Los Mamelucos. He has consistently served as an icon and role model for individuals with disabilities within the Carnival scene, and he is also an avid supporter of the blue and white team, regularly attending matches at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López Stadium as a member of the Boca Chinyero club, a subscriber since 1986, solely supporting Tenerife: “It is the only team that scores the goals,” he affirmed.
In the collective category, the award went to Fundación Tutelar Sonsoles Soriano, which is celebrating its inaugural 21 years of providing essential services for those in need, safeguarding their rights. This third sector association fills an important gap and serves as a reassurance for families, while also engaging in vital training and promoting volunteerism. They provide oversight for guardian roles, should parents have specified such arrangements in their wills, managing the property aspects of guardianship and assigning it to an individual with personal ties to the ward.
Prior to the award presentation, Bermúdez emphasised that “this gala serves to reaffirm our dedication to creating an inclusive city. A shared space where no one, irrespective of their abilities, is excluded from the daily community life in this Santa Cruz, which is resolutely working towards becoming a more accessible municipality every day, aiming for inclusivity. The core principle here is inclusion.”
The gala featured a variety of performances, showcasing characters from Alice in Wonderland at the entrance of the Guimerá, who conveyed a poignant message at the start of the event with music and lyrics from a very special song: Happy Heart. The manifesto for the International Day was read by last year’s award winner, Olympic athlete Judith Rolo.
The event concluded with Judith Rolo as the host, who invited singer Miriam Reyes to join her “in a spirit of hope and solidarity; an artist with one of the most prominent voices in Tenerife and a woman who has established her career both in the Canary Islands and beyond,” she concluded.
