CEBU, Philippines — She was called “The Dorothy Dix of the Visayas,” phenomenally popular in the Visayas and Mindanao for her regular feature in Bisaya Magazine, “Ang Panid ni Manding Karya,” which gave advice to letter-senders on matters of love, family, and social manners. She would get as many as 20 fan mails a day, a staggering number at the time.
Born in Carcar in 1878, Maria Cabigon had, like all women of her day, little formal schooling. She learned reading and writing and elementary Spanish from an aunt. Her first story entitled “Ang Gugma sa Inahan” was written at aged 16 under a pseudonym. She began using her real name in 1912, her initials “MAK” accompanied a body of works carried by numerous Cebuano Publications, including plays, poems, stories, and essays. At a time when men writers dominated the literary and journalistic scene, Cabigon helped pave the way for the succeeding generations of women writers.
Her short stories alone, until 1953, numbered more than a hundred, earning her the title of the “Most Prolific Cebuana Writer.” (Source: www.womenslawcentercebu.org)