1. Moro-Moro: Healing the Bayan*
* Country, Nation
From Devotion to Pay per View & Back to
Devotion
Nenita Pambid Domingo
Asian Languages & Cultures
UCLA

2. Outline
• Historical & Social Context of the Moro-
Moro
• The SDA (San Dionisio sa America)
• Native Language & Healing
• Moro-Moro as Ritual
• Quo vadis SDA and Moro-Moro

3. Moro-Moro or Komedya circa
1766
• believed to have originated from the celebration
called Moros y Cristianos all over Spain in
commemoration of the ‘battles, combats, and
fights between Moors (or Muslims) during the
period called Reconquista from the 8th
century
through the 15th
century.
– en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moros_y_cristianos. Accessed
on March 8, 2011.

4. Spanish Origin of Moro-Moro
• The oldest festival is said to have dated
from 1588 and is celebrated in Caudete.
– . Accessed on March 22, 2011.

5. Religious plays in poetic vernacular form
were effective and powerful tools to teach
religion, mores, ethics, and values, ‘being
aural, visual and participatory.’ Through
this imported theatrical form, ‘Spaniards
were accomplishing the unique work of
redeeming an Oriental people from
barbarism and heathenism to Christianity
and civilized life.’

6. In the 18th
and 19th
centuries, Moro-Moro
continued to be the drama form for fiestas. It
supported the status quo and the status quo
supported the rehearsals, costumes, performers
and performances of the Moro-Moro. ‘The verse,
lyrical, often grandiloquent—and the visual
spectacle won popular support for the komedya
all over the Philippines, except in the Muslim
areas.’ The Filipino people embraced and
cultivated the Komedya and used the native
languages to speak to their audiences.

7. Old & Contemporary
• The komedya of old and
the present komedya differ
in many ways but remain
true to its original form.
Both have three parts.
Each part has three to five
scenes. Each part is
performed in three
successive nights. Like
the komedya of old,
majority of the komedyas
are translations or adapted
from Hispanic ones.

8. Verse
• 7, 8, 14 syllables per line depends on
what the situation is- serious, comic,
sad
• Loa, speech, praises, love letters,
weddings, any sentimental situation- 12
syllables, 4 lines in one stanza- plosa-
regal & serious quality

9. Romance 8 syllables per line
• Sarcasm, taunting, jeering, boasting,
censuring, reproaching, staccato, crisp
• Assonantal rhyme (vowel)
• Versification has a formula
Lua- verse in praise of high officials-
bombastic style-fantastic, allusions to
Ulyses, Aristotle, events in Greece &
Rome

10. In Paranaque, devotees believe that San
Dionisio throws his decapitated head if there
is no performance of komedya on his feast
day. In San Pablo, Laguna, it is with
certainty that it would rain during the fiesta if
there is no komedya. In different towns, it is
with certainty that rice harvest would be less
had there not been a komedya performed. It is
apparent that Filipinos perform the komedya
the way they perform rituals to propitiate the
gods and for a bountiful harvest.

11. St. Dennis of Paris, France aka Tata Dune of
San Dionisio, Paranaque
• Born 250 A.D.
Jealous pagan
priests beheaded
him. St, Dennis
stood up, picked up
his head & walked to
burial place--the
Basilica of St.
Dennis.--Fr. Leo
Ortega

12. Tata Dune of San Dionisio sa Amerika

13. The Demise of the Moro-Moro
• Spread christianity
• Only entertainment with
church & state
imprimatur
entertainment
• Feudal system was
enforced
• Agricultural time
• Landlords & proprietors
& community financiers
• Christianity has become
the official religion
• Multiplicity of
entertainment found in
media
• Time is measured
differently, office,
factory, movie

14. San Dionisio sa America
Goals
• SDA hopes to use the moro-moro as a
vehicle to raise funds for its projects
• To present a komedya on the stage of San
Dionisio, Paranaque w/ LA actors
• To show the komedya in a big theatre with a
wide Filipino audience, not just townmates
from San Dionisio
• Dreams to propagate komedya as a theater
form with equal stature as the Noh or Kabuki
of Japan

17. Organizational Setup
• Board of Directors (President, Vice
President, Secretary, Treasurer)
• 7 Committees (Religious Affairs,
Cultural Affairs, Social Civic Affairs,
Publications, Komedya, Scholarship,
Ways and Means)

18. Bayan-Bayanan: San Dionisio
sa America Celebra
Program of Events
• 10:00 am Mass
• 12:00 pm Pot luck
• 1:00 pm procession
• 2:00 pm Moro-Moro
• 4:00 pm Door Prize
Drawings

19. • Food: Potluck

20. 2:00 pm Moro-Moro

21. Prinsesa Esperanza at
Prinsesa Caridad 2001

22. Princesa Esperanza…

23. Princesa Esperanza. . .

24. Prinsesa Esperanza …

25. Ang Kambal ng Valencia 2002

26. Dionisio (Duke, Obispo, at
Santo) 2003

27. Hermano de la Paz 2004
RJ Salvador

28. Prinsipe Rodante 2005
George Molina

29. Nerissa at Bolivar 2006

30. Nerissa at Bolivar

31. Nerissa at Bolivar

32. Esperanza at Caridad 2008
• October 11, 2008, Barnsdall Theater
• Story of love & hatred, betrayal &
forgiveness
• Past 12 years, rehearsals held at Maria
Herpacio’s residence (Inang Maria)
devotee of Tata Hosep & Tata Dune
every Sunday from June to October

33. Mga Prinsesa ng Cordova
2010-2011

34. Prinsesa Lavina
Masakitin

35. Haring Fernando at mga
Prinsesa

36. Haring Fernando at kawal

37. Korte ng Kristiyano

38. Prinsesa Dolores

39. Prinsesa Soledad (vain)

40. Prinsesa Milagros

41. Prinsesa Fatima

42. Mga Prinsesa ng Cordova

43. Mga Kristiyano

44. Company Call

45. Production Staff

46. Celebra 2012
• Reyna Isabela at Sultana Salimar
(Halaw sa “Prinsesa Miramar”) Joseph
Herpacio, Director
• 1986-2012-- 15 presentations

47. “Reyna Isabela at Sultana Salimar” by Mike
Llamas
2012 Moro-Moro at Barnsdall Theater at Los Angeles

49. Quo Vadis Moro-Moro?
• Every 2 years performance instead of
yearly
• Difficulty in recruiting actors
• Looking for director
• Time- only reason for refusal to be
involved

50. Tata Dune will not Forsake us
The Modern Komedya
• Use of technology: 2001 -recorded the
original mosiko in S.D., laban & pasa dobles,
marcha, etc.; sets projected on screens
• Actors no longer limited to people from San
Dionisio, Paranaque
• Venue moved from community centers: Main
Hall, Philippine Village Center at Eagle Rock;
Social Hall of St. Martha’s Episcopal Church
in West Covina to mainstream Barnsdall
Gallery Theater off Vermont & Hollywood
Blvd.

51. Implication of Modernization
pay per view
• Professionalize production to satisfy paying
audience
• Dichotomy of actors & audience, the 4th wall
• More non-SDA talents to ensure high quality
performance
• Use of Hollywood soundtracks: Narnya, Mrs.
Brown, Robin Hood, Hamlet, The Ten
Commandments, King of Kings, The Scarlet
Letter, Elizabeth, Ever After, Malena, Pearl
Harbor, Julius Ceasar, & The Musketeers

52. Tata Dune
• …continually bless & guide us for our
continuing support & patronage of HIS
beloved komedya, HIS Tanging Alay to all of
us.” Rick C. San Agustin
• The Moro-Moro belongs to the saint as it
belongs to the natives of Paranaque-a duty &
obligation on both sides… that this move to
modernize the komedya is the will of Tata
Dune to double the returns to support their
civic projects: scholarships, food baskets
during christmas, help for victims of flood &
fire in San Dionisio, Paranaque

53. Performing ethnicity, bayan
• People from San Dionisio don’t need to
reminisce the good times in Barrio San
Dionisio because in the U.S., in Hollywood,
L.A., they are in San Dionisio. They enjoy
their komedya with families & friends,
neighbors performing their yearly rituals, or
now every 2 years performance of the Moro-
Moro to ask for bountiful blessings in life,
good health, cure for terminal illnesses that
western medicine cannot cure, much like the
anting-anting or amulet- to pass that exam,
easy delivery, etc.

54. Moro-Moro as Ritual
• Performing the komedya is likened to
the rituals performed by babaylans or
shamans--for a good harvest, no longer
in an agricultural environment but in the
cash & consumerist economy of a
capitalistic society called Hollywood, the
entertainment capital of the world.

55. Tata Dune’s Komedya
• The undying & fervent devotion & belief
in the power of the patron saints Tata
Dune & Tata Hosep, St. Dennis of
France whose head had been severed
because of his faith, & St. Joseph, the
patron saint of wives who want to have
good fathers for their children & his
continuous blessings of an abundant
life keep the komedya, Moro-Moro
alive.

56. Tata Dune
• The saint carries his head on a platter,
and if there is no komedya, it is
believed that he throws his head as a
bratty child whose caprice was not
catered to. To keep him happy, a
komedya has to be performed in his
honor on his feastday.

57. Tata Dune’s Moro-Moro
• Otherwise, there would be floods, the
harvest would not be as bountiful as the
previous years when the komedya was
performed. San Dionisio is situated
near the sea. In the past, according to
theater artist GA, who trained with the
Moro-Moristas of San Dionisio, part of
their training was to row the boat to
reach the site of the training ground.

58. Never mind if the patron saint is French-- but the
people of San Dionisio in Paranaque & the people of
San Dionisio in America firmly believe that San
Dionisio has a soft spot for his Filipino devotees. He
speaks Filipino, understands the Tagalog komedya in
Tagalog verse & not in French.

59. Komedya (moro-moro)= Tata
Dune= SDA
The sine qua non of the
existence of SDA is to please
Tata Dune & Tata Hosep who
intercede for them to the Lord
Creator to grant all the blessings,
financial security, good health,
happy family & continuous
blessings.

60. SALAMAT PO!
Thank you!