From war dance to theater of war moro moro performances in the philippines 7

224 Chapter 7: Choreographic Opposition and the Portrayal of the Moro The moro-moro absorbs and reflects social changes. We cannot expect it to stay the same, for the society in which it thrives also undergoes significant change. We should view the moro-moro performances realized in the present not as exact recreations of the moro-moro of the past, but rather, as effectuations or versions that makes sense in the current situation and context. We have already seen in the last few chapters how there have been significant changes in the modes of delivery and consumption, and in the form and content of the genre as it is reformatted for new performance spaces and audiences. Today's many versions of the moro-moro result from a process of conscious selection of elements regarded as vital by performers. What elements have been kept as they were before, and what elements have been subject to considerable change? These differ from group to group. Dictation is considered vital in Nueva Ecija but not in San Dionisio. The use of real bladed weapons is considered vital in Baler, but not anywhere else. Elaborate costumes with multiple costume changes is considered vital in San Dionisio, while in Nueva Ecija and Baler, a single set of costumes is preferred and worn with pride in the same way high school cheerleaders or varsity players proudly display their team uniform. There is no single "model" that serves as a template for what the moro-moro is or should be. But despite the diversity of performance styles and the multitude of versions of the moro-moro found in small villages all over the country, there are some discernible patterns, a unifying thread and underlying logic to the kinds of changes that take place, indicative of the spirit of the times. 225 In this final chapter, I focus on one aspect of moro-moro performances that has always been considered central to the genre: the theme of Christian-Muslim conflict, or more specifically, the theme of Christian superiority. I draw attention to emerging patterns in the portrayal of the "Moro" and argue that there have been significant departures from the standard formula of depicting Christian victories over Muslim villains. There are likewise, considerable changes in attitude, both among "practitioners" who stage the plays and the audience that watches them, and these changes in attitude reflect the post 9-11 zeitgeist. It is the responsibility of the scholar studying the moro-moro to be perceptive to changes. For just as performances today are not mere re-creations of performances of the past, so too should frameworks of analysis and assumptions about the moro-moro not merely repeat those of the past. The chapter is organized in three parts: The first problematizes the notion of the moro-moro as a form of Catholic propaganda against Muslims. The second section highlights the various ways in which moro-moro performances depart from standard portrayals of Moros as villains. And the final section proposes new analytical frameworks that are better suited to account for the moro-moro of today. There is unfortunately, a tendency among some scholars in the present to essentialize the moro-moro, by describing it and boxing it categorically in a way that fails to reflect the dynamism displayed by village performers. To illustrate this point, I will compare a description of the moro-moro written in 1967 to one by a young scholar in 2009; these two statements made forty years apart are disturbingly similar despite the fact that the moro-moro has undergone so many transformations in the intervening years. Let us first take a look at an "official" description of the moro-moro made in 1967, in connection with the celebrated protest by Senator Tamano which we have 226 mentioned several times already in this study. As part of the Philippine celebration of International Tourism year, the Board of Travel and Tourist Industry (BTTI) sponsored a moro-moro presentation for a select crowd at the exclusive Philamlife Auditorium in Manila. The press release issued by BTTI to promote said event described the moro-moro as “a morality play portraying conflict between the Christians and the Muslims, with the former always on the winning side” and where “a fight takes place and ends in the utter defeat of the Muslims.” It was this press release that first caught the eye of Senator Mamintal Tamano, and provoked him to protest against and call for the banning of the moro-moro.1 Tamano pointed out that the Muslims in the Philippines are portrayed as the national villains and this is counter to the aim of promoting national unity. Since this controversy erupted, a number of influential academics, namely Virgilio Almario, Doreen Fernandez, and Nicanor Tiongson, to name the most prominent, and the drama enthusiast Felicidad Mendoza, actively campaigned for the reform of the moro-moro. For decades, they kept up a sustained effort of remedying the moro-moro's offensive theme. They saw in the moro-moro an important part of Filipino cultural heritage, and they hoped to harness it as a resource for the creation of a national theater. It had to be suitably reformed, however, so it could bear messages that promote national unity, and to that the offensive theme of Christian superiority had to be addressed. They made their desire to improve the moro-moro known through their writings, speeches at conferences, and through many other activities they organized, such as workshops and festivals, that brought them in contact with moro-moro performers. One such event that has been mentioned several times already in this study, is the Komedya Fiesta held at the University of the Philippines in 2008. Excerpts from the letter of Mamintal Tamano, chairman of the Commission on National Integration to President Marcos published in the Manila Times, Mar. 11. 1969. 227 The event was a huge undertaking, a month long festival that brought together moromoro troupes from villages from all over the Philippines. A big part of the workshop discussions was geared towards identifying issues and forging new directions for the moro-moro so that it could be made more relevant and become worthy of being a pillar of national theater. In an article entitled "Postcript to University of the Philippines Komedya Fiesta 2008: Prelude to a Discourse on National Theater"2, a young assistant professor from UP named Sir Anril Tiatco, who was actively involved in organizing and running the event, argued that the moro-moro "cannot serve as a national theater because of its Roman Catholic religious orientation". "The moro-moro is about the politics of the Catholic Church," he writes, and “non-Catholics are misrepresented in this theatre form". The moro-moro "pertains to the victorious Catholics and the lamentations of non-Catholics and Muslims”; it “echoes strong Catholic propaganda… [and] denigrates Muslims.” Tiatco's language and thinking resonate with the prevalent definition of the moro-moro used by the BTTI some forty years earlier. He also echoes the complaint made by Tamano that the genre denigrates Muslim. By re-affirming the BTTI’s definition, and Tamano's stance, Tiatco implies that nothing has changed in the conduct of moro-moro performances over the last four decades. This renders invisible all the efforts made by theater activists, and the many changes adopted by village performers over so many years. These statements made by Tiatco are significant for our study because I believe that he is voicing out a widely held, albeit outdated and static, view about the moro-moro today, and it is important to confront the issues he brings to light. His article, after all, as the sub-title suggests, is a "Prelude to a Sir Anril Tiatco. "Postscript to University of the Philippines Komedya Fiesta 2008: Prelude to a Discourse on National Theater". Asian Theatre Journal., vol. 26, no. (Fall 2009. University of Hawai'I Press. pp. 281-302. 228 Discourse on National Theater", and thus could be read as an invitation for further discussion. Let us begin by interrogating Tiatco's main concern over the moro-moro's supposed "Catholic orientation". Revisiting the Moro-Moro's Relationship with the Catholic Church Is the moro-moro today an extension of "Catholic propaganda"? At the Komedya Conference in 2008, two anecdotes on the disenchantment of moro-moro performers with the Catholic Church stand out in my mind as clear examples of how the Church and the moro-moro performers represent two traditions that are quite at odds with each other. The first anecdote comes from San Dionisio, where, as local legend has it, its patron saint San Dionisio appeared in a dream to one of the villagers to point out exactly where he wanted the stage to be built for the moro-moro performance. In the past, a makeshift stage would be built on that spot, to comply with the saint's wishes. A recent move has been undertaken by the village organization Komedya San Dionisio (KSD) to build a stage on that "special spot". Unfortunately for the komedyantes of San Dionisio, the piece of land in question is under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church and their recent requests to build a permanent stage there have been continuously declined. Other venues nearby are available, but elders still feel that San Dionisio's specific "instructions" should be honored. The refusal of the Church is causing a great deal of frustration among KSD's leaders, and as of the writing of this thesis the negotiations are still on-going.3 Similarly, in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija, the existence of the Arakyo, their local version of the moro-moro, was threatened in the 1970's when a priest wanted to This story was elayed to me by Hermie Hernandez in a private conversation. 229 prohibit the performance of the plays. The locals persisted in staging the plays, anyway, but had to find alternative venues farther away from the church, in peripheral spaces. The priest in question was eventually assigned elsewhere, but the Arakyo today continues to be performed in peripheral spaces and no longer in the main plaza like it used to. At the open forum, after my paper presentation, a local from Peñaranda spoke up and declared: "lumihis ang simbahan sa kagustuhan ng tao" (the Church veered away from the desires of the people). The situation today is a far cry from the Spanish period, when parish priests played a central role in the moro-moro's production. And yet, even then, it could be argued that the intentions of the Spanish priests did not necessarily coincide with native wishes either. To make better sense of the relationship between the Church and the moro-moro let us briefly revisit the 19th century environment in which this performance thrived, and scrutinize the social location of the moro-moro. Whose theater was it? In describing 19th century Tagalog rural life, Ileto calls the church-convento complex headed by the parish priest as the "first realm" that served as a reference point, a codifying and organizing center of social life. The local gentry, or principalia, "dominated by the mayor, his allies, tenants, police, and kinfolk" comprised the "second realm" which was plugged into the church-convento circuit, particularly in relation to ritual life. The principalia however, was able to maintain its own autonomous sociopolitical sphere, even as it identified with the church. In the latter half of the 19th century, transformations in Spain, and in particular the bitter conflicts between the liberals and the religious orders, influenced the outlook of the principales. Their familiarity with Enlightenment ideas gave them an awareness of 230 their rights, and the limits of the power of the priest. This, in turn, led to heightened tensions between the first and second realms. Beyond the two competing realms at the center, Ileto draws attention to a third realm at the town's outer limits, an alternative community with its own set of spiritual leaders and religious sects in the holy mountain in the distance. Mt. Banahaw was recognized as a source of supernatural powers. Many peasants, especially those living at the outskirts, were wont to make yearly pilgrimages to access the mountain's potency. These same peasants likewise, made strenuous efforts to travel to the town center for Catholic rites. Just like the second realm, the relationship of the third realm to the church center was that of "partial allegiances, guarded accommodations, shifting identities, and changing definitions of authority and salvation".4 The moro-moro at fiesta time was a site of convergence that connected all three realms. In the Spanish period, performances were lodged firmly in the first and second realms at the town center, and peasants would travel from afar to watch. The parish priest and the principales lorded over the fiestas and the moro-moro performances, and made important decisions such as which stories would be staged and who would star in them (either troupes were hired, or local villagers performed the roles). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the principalia class or the elite abandoned the moro-moro, which then slowly retreated from the poblacion center to the peripheries, to smaller barrios and to even smaller sitios, lodging itself firmly in the realm of peasants. We could interpret this as a means by which peasants appropriated for themselves an art form that was once in the control of the elite.5 As Reynaldo C. Ileto. 1998. "Rural Life in a Time of Revolution" in Filipinos and their Revolution. 1998. Ateneo de Manila University Press. pp. 79-98. This process of peasant appropriation of the moro-moro which was abandoned by the elite is discussed in detail by Resil Mojares in his book Theater in Society. 231 more Filipinos passed through the American education system, the belief that patron saints needed to be appeased through moro-moro performances was dismissed as superstition, and the new generation of educated elite no longer supported the staging of the plays. The older beliefs persisted among peasants, however, and they took it upon themselves to fulfill the community's panata, since the elite no longer considered it an obligation. In his study of the Pasyon, Ileto explains how the Tagalog notions of potency were similar to the Javanese idea of power, which derives from the animistic conception of a constant energy permeating the universe, which can be accumulated through the performance of certain acts. These notions of potency amalgamated with Christian elements, resulting in the domestication of Catholicism and the evolution of the Tagalogs' own brand of popular Christianity.6 We could view the moro-moro performances in this light, as not only a colonial tool wielded by the Spanish, but also as a vehicle for the preservation of the very same “animist” beliefs that the priests were trying to stamp out. Brandon posits that in pre-historic Southeast Asia, there existed in the region established traditions of folk performances that were closely tied to communal rites of animistic worship and to cyclical festivals, which served the dual purpose of religious worship and entertainment. When foreign forms of theater (most commonly from India and China; and in the Philippine case, from Spain) were later introduced in the region, these newer forms did not simply displace the older ones; rather, they were localized, or altered and reworked, and grafted onto existing patterns of theater activity.7 Reynaldo C. Ileto. 1979. Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. pp. 11, 24. Brandon, p. 12 232 Borne out of similar cultural settings, Brandon proposes that on the most basic level, the diverse theater forms of Southeast Asia generally reflect the casual rhythm of tropical life. The cycle of rice cultivation created leisure time, which was an essential precondition for the creation of theater. The development of artistic skills and the production of plays took place after planting season, and the festive consumption of folk theater coincided with the harvest. Throughout Southeast Asia, special performances were staged to honor the rice spirit. This is rooted in widespread animist beliefs that spirits reside in everything and that individuals can tap into "magic power", and acquire it through his own acts, such as through performance. When a person acts on another's behalf or in behalf of his community, his act becomes a magic ritual. Much of traditional theater in Southeast Asia can be understood within this context as an offering, whether in supplication or in gratitude, or to placate spirits. Those who participated in a performance believe it to be efficacious.8 Examples abound of how theater is used to bridge Southeast Asians with the spirit world. For example, to appease spirits and protect motorists, a police station in Java sponsored a wayang kulit performance at a road intersection that was prone to accidents. A special wayang kulit performance, called Murwakala is performed as part of the ruwatan ceremony to protect "ill-omened" or vulnerable children.9 In similar fashion, we have discussed in earlier chapters how in the moro-moro performances in Nueva Ecija, actors carry babies in their arms for a dance called pantot, as a means of protecting the children from illness in the coming year. Old women, and some men (such as a soldier who has returned from the battlefield), also join in the dance, either in supplication or thanksgiving for good health and fortune. Ibid., p. 3, p. 10. Jan Mrazek. 2005. Phenomenology of a Puppet Theater: Contemplations on the Art of Javanese Wayang Kulit. Leiden:KITLV Press. pp. xviii., 350. 233 We will recall that the Arakyo in Nueva Ecija takes place in May and is part of a larger fiesta celebrating devotion to the Holy Cross. While the devotion to the Holy Cross may lead one to assume that the Arakyo is very "Catholic", the point of view from the Church indicates otherwise. Let us take a look again at a the comment of the Most Reverend Mariano A. Madriaga, Bishop of Lingayen, whom we quoted earlier in Chapter as having branded the practices in connection with the Santa Cruz De Mayo as celebrations "smacking of vanity and paganism" and being "pretexts or occasions for more eating than praying, more material enjoyment than spiritual upliftment, and for ostentation of the particular queens". 10 This reminds us to have a more nuanced reading of the term "Catholic". One of the unique sociological features of contemporary Catholicism is the significant diversity within the Church, for it is anything but monolithic. There are many kinds of Catholics—the traditional, liberal, charismatic, nominal and, of particular interest to us, the folk Catholics who are very eclectic in their religious thinking and practice. They subscribe to a “superstitious” Catholicism that combines elements of animism, polytheism, occult spiritism, and so forth. By and large, official Catholic teaching does not sanction this kind of syncretistic religiosity although the Church has often tolerated it for pragmatic reasons. We can imagine fiesta time as a site, or space, for "the temporary resurgence of that which is suppressed but which cannot finally be expelled by the Church." The moro-moro could perhaps be thought of in the same way as the fiestas de Moros y Cristianos in Spain, which for Max Harris, can be viewed as "a resistance to the ecclesiastical hegemony and as a way of making room within the Church's sphere of approved activities for those aspects of human nature which the Church ordinarily 10 This sentiment was relayed in a sermon delivered on Sunday, May 17, 1953, see Francisco G. Tonogbanua. A Survey of Philippine Literature. 1959. p. 82. 234 rejects." We must view in a fiesta, an opportunity for the accommodation of contrasting notions of faith and salvation simultaneously co-existing in a single festival time and space sanctioned by the Church.11 This leads us back to Ileto's ideas, which we quoted earlier, on the relationship among the first realm of the Church, the second realm of the principalia or elites, and the third realm of the peasants in the outskirts, and their "partial allegiances, guarded accommodations, shifting identities, and changing definitions of authority and salvation". Thus could we frame the tentative relationship between a folk Christian devotion like the moro-moro and the official doctrine of the Church. Going back to the sweeping statements made by Tiatco on the Catholic orientation of the moromoro, is it really "about the politics of the Catholic Church" and an extension of "Catholic propaganda" as he claims?, or is it a form of resistance to ecclesiastical hegemony and a vehicle for the perpetuation of alternative belief systems that the Church is forced to tolerate and accommodate? We should also perhaps question just how much control the church had over the production of the moro-moro. We have already shown in previous chapters that the manner in which the moro-moro was presented created a lot of opportunities for improvisations and extemporaneously composed elements that could not have possibly been censored by the church. It is often mentioned in literature on the history of the moro-moro that the moro-moro plays were subjected to Spanish censorship. It is worth pointing out, however, that the complaints of the Spanish about the unruly nature of the moro-moro preceded the creation of colonial censorship bodies. Some recorded anecdotes substantiate this claim. In one instance in Tondo, the archbishop complained that the Pope was presented onstage as having been beheaded by Moors, 11 See Max Harris. "Muhammed and the Virgin: Folk Dramatizations of Battles between Moors and Christians in Modern Spain" The Drama Review 38, (Spring 1994), pp. 45-61. 235 and in another instance, the “disrobing of a character of the clerical robes he had on and throwing them on the stage floor” was the cause of complaint.12 These two events, according to Buenaventura13, led to the creation of the censorship bodies in 1855 and 1857. Read this way, the moro-moro seems more “out of control” rather than “under (Spanish) control”. In the next section, we shall interrogate this notion of the moro-moro as "Catholic propaganda" by taking a close look at how the Moro roles are conceived, portrayed, and valued by moro-moro performers today. Changing Portrayals of the Moro It has been four decades since Tamano's protest, and since that time many changes have taken place in terms of the moro-moro's form and content. We can see in today's performances how the conventional theme of Christian superiority is slowly being abandoned. Through strategies such as deletion (offensive scenes such as baptism are abandoned), inversion ("Moros" become heroes and victors), revision (alternative endings are shown, such as reconciliation, or a tie), and appropriation (characters are equated to indigenous gods and local heroes), performances are infused with radical new messages such as peaceful co-existence and nationalism. Deletion of Baptism In the Arakyo of Nueva Ecija, as we have seen, the performance in the village of Sinasajan ends with no clear winners or losers, and the baptism scene is conspicuously absent. None of my interviewers could remember precisely when in the last two decades the practice was abandoned, but one man recounted to me that it was "more fun" when there was a baptism because members of the community played the 12 Ibid., page 27. Cristina Laconico Buenaventura. The Theater in Manila: 1846-1946. (Manila: De La Salle University Press) 1994. p. 44-45. 13 236 role of "Ninong and Ninang"--or godfathers and godmothers--and this involved giving money to the "newly baptized" Moros. When Nicanor Tiongson made his study of the Arakyo in 1985 the baptism scene was still being acted out as the culminating event of the play. The director called on mock "godparents" to come up on stage, and they stood in one line behind the actors who played the roles of Moros. The actor playing the role of King Constantino "baptized the Moros" giving each of them a Christian name and saying to each, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I now baptize you," using the actual formula in the Catholic baptism ritual performed in church. Instead of water, he sprinkled salt on their heads after which the Moro actors received an envelope with money from their "godparents". The extra cash is perhaps one of the reasons why the role of a Moro is more valued than a Christian one. The practice of baptism could perhaps have been abandoned in the interest of fairness, as only the Moro faction of the cast would receive cash, but it seems that even with the abandoning of baptism, the privileged status of Moro actors still remains. An actor told me that in the hierarchy of the cast, the Christian soldiers rank lower than the Moros, although the Christian role of Queen Elena is the most coveted role for women. Adrian Guzman, who has been acting for years, said he started out as a Christian, eventually working his way up to his current role as a Moro. Now in his early twenties, he has played in the Arakyo every year since he was 14. When I asked him how the story ends, specifically asking him who wins the battle, he responded to me, that it was the Moors who emerge victorious.14 This was quite confusing given the clarity of the script in assigning victory to the Christians. The Arakyo is a story about Queen Helena and her quest for Christ's 14 Interview. Adrian Gonzalez. Sinasajan, Nueva Ecija. May 20, 2005. 237 cross in Jerusalem. Clearly in the script the play ends in "Cristiano" victory and conversion of "Moros". In actual practice, however, the play ends when the sun sets, regardless of what part of the script is left unperformed. An exciting battle scene closes the show, with no winners declared, in what could be interpreted as a tie or a draw. When the diktador decides it is time to end the play, the male actors fall into formation on stage, Christians and Moros across from each other. The music changes to battle music and the actors launch a free-spirited, un-choreographed wrestling match, with Christians and Moros rolling on the ground, locked in wrestling holds, pulling at each others' shirts, scrambling on stage creating a moving mass of entangled arms and legs—all to the delight of the crowd. The music then changes back to the Pasadoble, and the actors take this as a cue to release their hold and disentangle themselves from one another, to pick themselves up from the floor and straighten up their clothes. They pace around the stage, listening to the music, and one can tell from their anticipatory stance and from the mood of expectation of the crowd, that another round of scrambling is about to take place. And, indeed, the band music changes tempo again and to its quick, martial beat the actors again have a go at each other in what seems to be an actually painful performance. This scrambling goes on for a few more rounds until the band plays the final stanza. Certainly the actors have sustained a few bruises, scratches, and sprains from the "mock battle", but the mood is very festive. In all the excitement of the final battle, no one seems to care that the story does not actually have a definitive ending in terms of plot. As in Sinasajan, the performance I saw in San Dionisio, in Metro Manila, in May, 2006, entitled Prinsipe Reynaldo, also skipped the baptism scene. Unlike in Sinasajan, where one script is used repeatedly, the locals of San Dionisio write new 238 scripts and stage a different story each year. The director of the play informed me that it was a conscious decision not to include the baptism scene.15 One of Tiatco's claims is that the moro-moro "denigrates Muslims". This claim of Tiatco has basis, because there is a tendency for moro-moro plays to follow conventional plots and make use of stock characters, stock imagery, and stock situations premised on Christian and Muslim antagonisms. Despite the fact that there are occasions when the moro-moro can indeed be demeaning to Muslims, we must still exercise caution in making hasty generalizations, and particularly in declaring in absolute terms that by nature the moro-moro's purpose is to denigrate Muslims. From another perspective, the case could be made that the opposite is true-that the moro-moro does not always denigrate Muslims and may even valorize them. The Moro roles may sometimes be considered more prestigious and more desirable than the Christian roles. If we were to follow the underlying logic of Tiatco, and see the moro-moro as a pro-Catholic art form that denigrates Muslims, it should follow that the Christian roles representing the "self" would be more coveted than those roles representing the "enemy". In the filming of the movie "Braveheart" starring Mel Gibson, as a popular anecdote goes, when the film crew went to Scotland and searched for actors who wanted to take part in the film as extras, they had difficulty in getting people to agree to act as English soldiers. All of the applicants, feeling patriotic, wanted to play the role of Scottish soldiers who get to unleash their fury against the English. This is however, not the case in the moro-moro. One trend that seems counter-intuitive is the "aesthetic victory" of the Moro role, that is, the assigning of more desirable costumes and dance movements to Moro 15 Interview. Nemie Pagrakhan, San Dionisio, Parañaque. July 19, 2006. 239 roles, which in turn makes these roles more prestigious.16 The idea here is that although the Christian protagonists may be the official victors based on the script, the Moros roles may be privileged during the performance in that they are given more exciting costumes and dance steps and are thus the victors in an aesthetic sense. This is arguably the case in Baler, in Aurora province, where the female actors playing Moro roles are the more experienced, skilled, and even more beautiful dancers. The conventional costumes for Christian princesses are chaste long gowns, and for Moro princesses, exciting short skirts. With their exposed legs, Moro princesses can show off fancier footwork and perform difficult and exhilarating spinning jumps, akin to an axel jump in ice skating, which involves one and a half revolutions in the air. To be a Moro princess means to be a superior dancer, with grace and athleticism, as well as shapely legs. The degree of difficulty is increased even further when the challenging choreography is combined with dialogue. The delivery of lines is punctuated by cymbals being struck precisely as actors' swords clash or when their spears are hurled onto the wooden stage floor and left to stand upright on their own, the blades having punctured the wood (this is to demonstrate to the audience that the props are really sharp; in fact, in Baler, the weapons used are real, and are sharpened conspicuously before the show). For the male Moro performers, they too, have to perform more difficult jumps, which are not performed by those assigned to Christian roles. With a higher degree of skills required for the Moros, only the most experienced and senior actors are thus cast into these roles. For both actors and audiences alike, the Moro roles are valued and celebrated. In a surprising reversal, the villains in the script are actually the stars during the performance. 16 I borrow the usage of this phrase from Max Harris in his study of dances of conquest, or versions of the Moros y Cristianos in Mexico. See: Max Harris. The Role of La Malinche in Mesoamerican Dance. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 109, No. 432. (Spring, 1996), p. 157. 240 When there are time constraints and only a dance demonstration is requested of the Comedia de Baler, they choose the Moro princess, rather than the Christian princess, as the emblematic representation of their moro-moro. It is after all the role of the Moro princess that requires the most vigor, skillfulness, and beauty. In San Dionisio, as well, there are certain moves and costumes assigned only to the Moro roles. The entrance steps used by the Moro characters are more elaborate, involving a sideways movement of the hips and a proud positioning of the head. The costumes for the Moro princess also require that she have a flat belly and shapely legs, and so the actress with the best body gets assigned the role. Aesthetic victory is likewise seen in the Komedya San Miguel of Iligan in Mindanao, where the story of the moro-moro focuses not on Christian and Muslim conflict, but on the battle between the faction of the fallen angel Lusbel, who rebelled against God, and the faction led by the archangel St. Michael. That the moro-moro in Iligan developed as a story about St. Michael is significant. Iligan is located in Mindanao, where Christians and Muslims were historically engaged in war. As Alejandro Roces puts it, if the Iligan Recollect missionaries still wanted to pursue the armed offensive against the Muslims, they would have chosen a titular like Santiago Matamoros, the patron of Spain who according to legend came to the aid of Christians on a white charger during the battle against the Moors. The fact that when Iligan parish was founded in 1843, Michael the Archangel was chosen as titular is an indication that the policy had shifted to that of peaceful co-existence. For Michael is both a Christian and Islamic Archangel. In Christianity, the Archangel Michael is God's standard-bearer; in Islam, he is the 241 champion who fights the battles of the faith. The figure of Michael the Archangel can thus serve as a bond of unity between Christians and Muslims.17 In actual performance, the "fallen angels" led by Lusbel, who are made to wear costumes that make them look like Devils, are really the crowd pleasers in the show. An observer who watched a recent performance in 1996 had this to say: Of course, it was not surprising if the devils upstaged the angels. The devils with their nightmarish makeup over angelic expressions got more lusty cheers from the audience than the serious-looking angels with their painted wings of plywood and some branded swords shaped like the Maranao kris. The rest of the komedya players often went about their places in a bewildering manner with the prompters bothering everyone…Scene-stealing particularly by the rowdy, potbellied devils and Julian Zalsos, who played Lusbel, was the order of the day.18 On the one hand, we can see how the Comedia San Miguel seems to have substituted the role of Moros with Devils, and following Tiatco's logic, this may indeed be seen as a denigration of Muslims. On the other hand, in the conduct of performance, the audience clearly sides with the Devils, who are in reality the stars of the show, and the most important performer is in fact Lusbel, who is given more freedom to mischievously stray from the text, in what the observer called "scene stealing". Another trend that negates Tiatco's claim that the moro-moro denigrates Muslims is the practice of inversion in the revised moro-moro plays in San Dionisio. As mentioned in Chapter 6, the revision of the moro-moro in San Dionisio started in 1962, when local civic leaders updated the scripts and came up with a new play called Prinsipe Rodante. In the play, the story shifts the battle between good and evil from a 17 Alejandro Roces. "Ilgan's Senor San Miguel" from the official Iligan City Website. This observation was written by Christine F. Godinez-Ortega who teaches creative writing and literature at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology. She is a founding member and has served as chair for the Literary Arts Committee of the CCP-Iligan Arts Council, and has served as regional coordinator for literature for the CCP since 1992. Her poetry, fiction, and articles have appeared in numerous local and national publications. From Ani, 1997, a publication of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. 18 242 Christian-Muslim divide to a conflict between the dutiful and traitorous sons of the Christian king. Prinsipe Rodante represents the dutiful and virtuous son, while Prinsipe Alvaro represents the greedy son who usurps power from his father. Several inversions are used in the play, where Moros are made to win over Christians. In a tournament, for example, Alvaro is defeated by the Moro prince, Aladin. Another inversion involves the Moro army's instrumental role in helping Rodante reclaim the kingdom from Alvaro involving a battle scene where Christian soldiers loyal to Alvaro are defeated. In some other cases, it becomes increasing difficult to think in terms of either "Moro" or "Cristiano". Take, for example, the moro-moro play entitled Princesa Perlita, which we discussed in Chapter 6. In Perlita we find protagonists dressed in fabrics inspired by native Southeast Asian or Malay clothing. The protagonists are converted to Christianity early in the play. A cardinal from a foreign kingdom baptizes them and gives the queen, Reyna Malaya, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The image miraculously speaks to Malaya warning her of an impending attack. The invaders who attack, are led by Montenegro who takes over the bodies of the Spanish cardinal through black magic and thus becomes a representation of Spain. The cardinal who initially baptized Malaya, and who is first portrayed as a benevolent character, becomes a traitor when he is manipulated by Montenegro later in the story. We see in this play an acceptance of Christianity signified by the appropriation of the Virgin Mary to the side of the protagonists, and a rejection of Spanish authority and “frailocracy” (represented by the manipulated cardinal). Throughout the play, the protagonists continue to wear their Malay clothes. And the hero who defeats Montenegro in a breathtaking fight scene at the end of the play is 243 dressed in a way that evokes images of Lapu-Lapu, a local datu warrior, whose resistance and defeat of Magellan made him the country's first hero. The example just given reminds us to pay close attention to the performative life of a text. Through the strategic choice of costumes, a story line's main message may be subverted. The moro-moro is often seen as a colonial tool, but it can also be the vehicle for nationalist messages. In Perlita, even if the protagonists are supposed to have been converted to Christianity, their costumes clearly equate them with preHispanic Filipinos, or with the Moro warriors who resisted Magellan. The converts, though they accept Christianity, are shown to be both anti-Spanish and anti-friar. Illustration 26 Costumes in Prinsesa Perlita inspired by Southeast Asian and Malay clothing Another example of how narratives of nationalism are worked into the moromoro can be seen in the troupe sinulog of Cebu, a dance-drama which has structural affinities with the moro-moro. In her study of the troupe sinulog in Cebu, Sally Ann Ness shows how nationalist imagery has worked its way into the performance. The 244 opening segment shows three principal characters: Magellan, King Humabon (Magellan's Visayan host), and Lapu-lapu (Magellan's slayer). As the three approach the patron saint, they together with the corps of performers kneel before the image of the Santo Niño, except for those in the "Moro" column. Lapu-lapu's rise as a pivotal principal character in the dramatization is a recent development. In 1965, Spanish Kings marched down the center of a three column formation, with "Cristiano" soldiers on one side, and "Moros" on the other. By the 1980s, the procession of Spanish Kings was gone, and in its place was a re-enactment of Magellan's defeat by Lapu-lapu19. Through the years, the sinulog came to represent a twofold narrative central to Filipino nationalism: the conversion to Christianity, and Muslim resistance. In the sinulog we see two portrayals of the "Moro", in the role of both convert (Humabon) and victor (Lapu-lapu). The image of the two Moro chiefs, Humabon and Lapu-lapu, marching side by side, seems to remind Filipinos of an age of brotherhood disrupted by the arrival of the Spanish, sending the message that Christian and Muslim Filipinos share the same blood. This notion of shared blood and the image of a pre-Hispanic past characterized by brotherhood, can also be seen in a comment made by Soxy Topacio, the director of Perlita. While promoting the play in a television show in 2006, Topacio was quoted as having said that the conflict in the story is not about Muslims and Christians, "and the characters are all Muslims, which in truth, we all were, once upon a time".20 Choreographic Opposition and the Moro-Moro's Symmetry We have seen in the preceding discussion how the moro-moro can accommodate inversions, substitutions, and deletions without losing its basic 19 Sally Ann Ness.1992. Body, Movement, and Culture: Kinesthetic and Visual Symbolism in a Philippine Community. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 139-145. 20 Mustafa, N. Kris-Crossing Mindanao: Komedya. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Page A13. Oct. 9, 2006. 245 structural form of presenting conflict between two antagonistic factions. The structure of performances enjoys a great degree of malleability and flexibility. We have also seen how the identities of the antagonistic factions are not fixed but, rather, are flexible "cultural imaginaries" that have an "inexhaustive incorporative capacity" and can thus refer to multiple and even hybrid identities.21 This capacity to accommodate changing meanings has created the opportunity for the moro-moro to veer away from its conventional portrayal of Muslims as the villains and the vanquished. What we make of the theme of Christian and Muslim conflict? Is there a way of talking about this feature of the moro-moro without reverting to the usual interpretations of this theme of conflict as an extension of "the politics of the Catholic Church" or as "Catholic propaganda"? I propose that we view “opposition” a matter of choreography, a necessary starting point in the sequence of events that allows for the performance of fightrelated moro-moro conventions such as the marchas, torneos, paseos, and batallas. But it is an opposition in form and not in substance and fails to fall neatly under the categories of “dichotomies” or “binary logic”. It is an opposition that does not simply and completely result in “othering”. It is often assumed that when two sides are drawn, a dichotomy is presented. The moro-moro which is premised on war between Christians and Muslims is often understood in this terms. Dichotomies operate on “presences” and “absences”, juxtaposing what is present on one side, with its opposite on the other side. Standard perceptions of the moro-moro assume that virtue and heroism are assigned to the Christian kingdom, while vice and villainy are assigned to the Muslim kingdom. 21 Shelton, 2004. p. 67 246 A close inspection of moro-moro texts and performances, however, yields a different picture. The repertoire of characters, movements, and dialogues are repeated in both Christian and Muslim kingdoms in a symmetrical unfolding of plots and actions mirrored in both sides. A popular subplot, which we have seen in several synopsis discussed in this study, involves a Christian prince falling in love with a Muslim princess when he travels to a Muslim kingdom, which would be followed in succeeding scenes by a Muslim prince falling in love with a Christian princess when he travels to a Christian kingdom. In both kingdoms, a repertoire of stereotypical loyal friends and traitorous enemies either helps or prevents the Christian and Muslim lovers from uniting. What we see is an underlying structure where virtue and vice, or forces of “good” and “evil”, are present in both sides. This structure of symmetrical unfolding was an integral part of the moro-moro design, for it allowed the story to stretch indefinitely, swinging back and forth from kingdom to kingdom in repeated patterns, allowing community producers to lengthen or shorten performances as their fiesta budget allowed. Performances then could be as short as two hours or as long as nights. In either case, it is the thrill of watching the dance fight choreography and hearing the sweet melodic pattern of recited verses that engaged the crowd, while the plot and the story receded in the background. Opposition, therefore, was cosmetic, rather than substantive. The differences among Christian and Muslim characters were expressed outwardly in the different colors of their costume, the names assigned to the characters, and which side of the stage they entered and exited from. The underlying logic, however, is premised on a view of human nature where good and evil reside in all beings, where the honorable characters--whether Christian or Muslim--are cheered, and the villainous--again, whether Christian or Muslim--are detested by the crowd. 247 The formulary “baptism” of Muslim characters to Christianity at the end of the play was a necessary device to allow the lovers of two different religions to be united. Often read as an offensive practice, it can alternatively be interpreted as an expression of essential “equality” between Christians and Muslims who are different only by baptism and not by nature. As a theater form that emerged under conditions of Spanish censorship, baptism scenes were also necessary to secure permission to continuously stage the plays. In this day and age, however, when tensions between Christians and Muslims are high and there is growing awareness of the need to show sensitivity to the Muslim minority, the formulary baptism that was once an essential part of the moro-moro is being portrayed less and less. The categorical instability of the terms "Moro" and "Cristiano", coupled with the malleability of performances, shows how the ostensibly simple binary structure of these mock battles hides multiple layers of meaning. It is contingency rather than fixity that characterizes the moro-moro, and herein lies the potential for a theater premised on war and conquest, to be capable of delivering a message of brotherhood and nationalism. [...]... role of "Ninong and Ninang" or godfathers and godmothers and this involved giving money to the "newly baptized" Moros When Nicanor Tiongson made his study of the Arakyo in 1985 the baptism scene was still being acted out as the culminating event of the play The director called on mock "godparents" to come up on stage, and they stood in one line behind the actors who played the roles of Moros The actor... actor playing the role of King Constantino "baptized the Moros" giving each of them a Christian name and saying to each, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I now baptize you," using the actual formula in the Catholic baptism ritual performed in church Instead of water, he sprinkled salt on their heads after which the Moro actors received an envelope with money from their... accommodate changing meanings has created the opportunity for the moro- moro to veer away from its conventional portrayal of Muslims as the villains and the vanquished What do we make of the theme of Christian and Muslim conflict? Is there a way of talking about this feature of the moro- moro without reverting to the usual interpretations of this theme of conflict as an extension of "the politics of the Catholic... wanted to take part in the film as extras, they had difficulty in getting people to agree to act as English soldiers All of the applicants, feeling patriotic, wanted to play the role of Scottish soldiers who get to unleash their fury against the English This is however, not the case in the moro- moro One trend that seems counter-intuitive is the "aesthetic victory" of the Moro role, that is, the assigning... Costumes in Prinsesa Perlita inspired by Southeast Asian and Malay clothing Another example of how narratives of nationalism are worked into the moromoro can be seen in the troupe sinulog of Cebu, a dance- drama which has structural affinities with the moro- moro In her study of the troupe sinulog in Cebu, Sally Ann Ness shows how nationalist imagery has worked its way into the performance The 244 opening... a cue to release their hold and disentangle themselves from one another, to pick themselves up from the floor and straighten up their clothes They pace around the stage, listening to the music, and one can tell from their anticipatory stance and from the mood of expectation of the crowd, that another round of scrambling is about to take place And, indeed, the band music changes tempo again and to its... represents the dutiful and virtuous son, while Prinsipe Alvaro represents the greedy son who usurps power from his father Several inversions are used in the play, where Moros are made to win over Christians In a tournament, for example, Alvaro is defeated by the Moro prince, Aladin Another inversion involves the Moro army's instrumental role in helping Rodante reclaim the kingdom from Alvaro involving a... "godparents" The extra cash is perhaps one of the reasons why the role of a Moro is more valued than a Christian one The practice of baptism could perhaps have been abandoned in the interest of fairness, as only the Moro faction of the cast would receive cash, but it seems that even with the abandoning of baptism, the privileged status of Moro actors still remains An actor told me that in the hierarchy of the. .. representation of their moro- moro It is after all the role of the Moro princess that requires the most vigor, skillfulness, and beauty In San Dionisio, as well, there are certain moves and costumes assigned only to the Moro roles The entrance steps used by the Moro characters are more elaborate, involving a sideways movement of the hips and a proud positioning of the head The costumes for the Moro princess... see two portrayals of the "Moro" , in the role of both convert (Humabon) and victor (Lapu-lapu) The image of the two Moro chiefs, Humabon and Lapu-lapu, marching side by side, seems to remind Filipinos of an age of brotherhood disrupted by the arrival of the Spanish, sending the message that Christian and Muslim Filipinos share the same blood This notion of shared blood and the image of a pre-Hispanic . the actors who played the roles of Moros. The actor playing the role of King Constantino "baptized the Moros" giving each of them a Christian name and saying to each, " ;In the name. narratives of nationalism are worked into the moro- moro can be seen in the troupe sinulog of Cebu, a dance- drama which has structural affinities with the moro- moro. In her study of the troupe sinulog. is often mentioned in literature on the history of the moro- moro that the moro- moro plays were subjected to Spanish censorship. It is worth pointing out, however, that the complaints of the