65 PHILIPPINE HUMANITIES REVIEW CONTEMPORARY PORTRAYALS OF THE "MORO" IN FOLK DRAMATIZATIONS IN SPAIN, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE PHILIPPINES NIKKI BRIONES-CARSICRUZ Tis paper deals with portrayals of the "Moro" in contemporary folk dramatizations of medieval struggles between Moors and Christians, found in village or town festas in parts of Spain, Central America, and the Philippines. It is ofen believed that the standard theme of these performances is Christian superiority, and the "Moro" is always cast in the role of villain and vanquished. While this still holds true for most performances, in a number of places, festa committees have decided to break with tradition, and have introduced formats and content that depart signifcantly from the standard formula. In this paper, I draw attention to a counter-intuitive notion: that a representation of war and conquest in folk dramatizations of battles between Christians and Muslims has the potential to convey messages of convivencia (peaceful co-existence) and nationalism. Trough strategies such as deletion (ofensive scenes such as baptism phr journal2010.indd Sec1:65 phr journal2010.indd Sec1:65 11/5/2010 9:23:25 AM 11/5/2010 9:23:25 AM