March 20, 2003

March 20, 2003, is presented as a date of stark simultaneity: as spring begins, Loïc and Laurence watch a ritual ceremony in Havana while US bombs fall on Baghdad. The contrast brings distant political violence and an immediate scene of communal celebration into the same narrative moment.

The Havana Ceremony

On the evening of March 20, Loïc and Laurence attend a ceremony in a Havana neighborhood. They have arrived after nightfall, following a meeting at the entrance to Colón Cemetery. The scene is filled with ritual drumming and dance: a performer in a wide blue dress represents Yemaya, an orisha associated with the waters, while the crowd gathers around the improvised stage.

A Night of Contrasts

The date also anchors the ceremony to the opening night of the US bombing of Baghdad. The narration describes the bombs falling as an attempt ostensibly to overthrow a dictatorship, but presents the pursuit of oil as the real motive. Against that violence, the dancers’ movement, the sacred drums, and the gathering in Havana form a sharply contrasting image—not an escape from the world’s conflicts, but a simultaneous scene unfolding within them.

Narrative Significance

By naming the beginning of spring and the bombing in the same sentence, the passage gives March 20 a double charge: seasonal renewal coincides with the renewed devastation of war. The date links Loïc and Laurence’s experience of a living religious ceremony to a wider political crisis, widening the scene beyond the neighborhood without displacing its focus on the dancers and their audience.