Havana, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) Cuban playwright Edgar Estaco said the United States "threatens us psychologically," which Boston psychoanalyst Stephen Soldz explained has profound effects, especially when the fear that can generate is of "the greatest power on earth."
At a Havana performance of his piece November by Teatro D'Subito, dramaturgist Edgar Estaco told Prensa Latina it is not strange for conscriptees to sit for days with bulletless guns in the woods, facing no more than enemy mosquitoes. The trauma of a "War of All the People," and state of perpetual readiness to fight it lie beneath this tragedy of jealousy at the Llaurado Theater, directed by Pedro Vera, the other half of a thespian "binomial" that has been heating up Cuban stages for the last two years.
Vera explained to this reporter that they dissolve the traditional distance between authors and directors, and have designed this moving piece in a forest around a huge tree stump. Two brothers in fatigues roll, stand up and sit on it, creating a jealous tension over the missing Matilde, who they both love.
All that's left of her is an ephemeral ghost, thanks to brother Alejo, who killed their former sweetheart in a fit of jealousy inspired by his slower smitten sibling.
"What are we doing here? We don't even have bullets," asks the mentally-challenged brother Martin, played by Gregorio Reyna, and the self-assured Alejo, acted by Carlos Ramos, answers "We're here to survive. War is like that."
Psychological Warfare
Edgar Estaco told Prensa Latina that "Cuba has been in a psychological war for 40 years. It has almost become a custom to be on the alert and truthfully it is not unheard of for men to be sent off to the countryside on drills with nothing but wooden rifles."
Estaco is a hydraulic engineer by profession, and another casualty related to US aggression against Cuba has been the eroding infrastructure, which includes leaky pipes and other headaches which surely have plagued this creator.
"This work is a parody of the Cuban psyche, but the covert threat really exists and these maneuvers may be of some value," he says, explaining "the United States threatens us psychologically and we defend ourselves psychologically."
When the Tears Dry
The brothers banter about insects, hunting lizards for snacks and the invisible enemy, as the specter of Matilde floats in and out, played by Lenia Maria Perez in a mottled robe.
She urges them to leave their anxiety behind, to come home, begging in her feminine voice of wisdom, "you don't know what a woman is capable of saying when her tears dry."Alejo, who originally had planned on bumping off his brother Martin in the woods with the one loaded gun, ends up directing the shot to his own head in a tragic suicide and the white flag is raised by Matilde to a Frank Delgado tune written especially for this piece.
No White Flag for Cubans
But there is no surrender by the people in the theater, faced with the concrete intimidations of the faceless enemy depicted in this play. 
The website Cuba vs. the Blockade explains how the US blockade threatens to some degree practically all realms of life here from music, family visits, education, travel and sports to banking, including billions lost in trade, energy and telecommunications.
Perhaps some of the most distressing bullying is that of the health care services, and "the impossibility of acquiring the necessary medicines or equipment has sometimes prevented Cuban doctors from saving lives or relieving suffering."
Just today in Havana the visiting Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the blockade was "immoral, irresponsible and illogical," waged by a difficult foe to which Cuba cannot and will not admit defeat.
Deep Effects of Chronic Anxiety
After Prensa Latina shared information with him about the psychological warfare addressed in this play and some examples of adversity caused by the US blockade, Stephen Soldz, Professor at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, said he was not surprised to hear about how widespread the tension is in the Cuban population.
He said "To the extent that people live in chronic underlying fear of a vague threat, it has profound effects," and that he would be interested in studying those with psychologists here.
The courageous PhD holder must know the taste of fear after visiting and confronting top US military brass responsible for "abusive interrogations" at the prison on its illegal base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Dr. Soldz said the consequences of living in a state of constant alarm include "both emotionally and cognitively, low-level anxiety and difficulty concentrating, among other effects."
He explained that the US has many connotations, not just intimidation, but also longing.
That craving is created and fueled in hostile campaigns like the pro-US propaganda broadcast from Radio Marti, promises of aid to a "transition" government or instant citizenship to any Cuban who makes it to the border with dry feet.
Soldz summed up the pathos of this situation and said "When fear is of the greatest power on earth, which also has many desirable features, it can confuse one's sense of place in the world."
So in the psychoanalytical terms laid out by this US specialist, it is disturbing to be scared of something that also attracts, which like the tale of the two brothers in a love triangle gone awry, is a tragedy.
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