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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Lifestyle
Graham Keeley

Party with controversy: Spain’s festival of Moors and Christians

Arab rulers dominated nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula for about 700 years [Juan Garcia Garcia/Al Jazeera]

Elda, Spain – Wearing a fake plastic animal skull and long black feathers in her headdress, Cristina Morcilla holds a spear and looks like she is going to war for an African tribe.

By day, she works in an import-export business, but tonight she is dressed up for the fiesta of the Moros y Cristianos, Spanish for Moors and Christians, which celebrates the reconquest of Iberia by Christian armies over Arab forces more than 500 years ago.

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