The book De teléfonos te hablamos... (We are talking about telephones), by journalist Lucía C. Sanz Araujo, published by Casa Editora Abril, and Tonito, a technical magazine devoted to children, by the Telecommunications Company of Cuba S.A. (ETECSA), were presented this Thursday at the Central Palace of Computer Science in Havana, as part of the Cuba Literaria space at the 30th Havana International Book Fair, which is being held in Cuba until April 30.

Tonito, the technical magazine for children

"Tonito magazine is the child of Tono, a scientific-technical magazine, created in 2004, where leading researchers publish works on telecommunications and computer science," Evelyn Marbot, editor of the supplement, explained to the children and the attending press.

Evelyn Marbot y Alena Bastos

Ten years after Tono was founded, in 2014, the Tonito supplement was created with the intention of bringing children closer to the world of technology.

The latest issue of the publication dedicates its pages to topics such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, indexed as the most technological Olympics in history; the addiction to networks, a powerful tool that must be used responsibly; fake news; and an article on the International Day of Girls in ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies), a date that has been celebrated for the past eleven years on the fourth Thursday of April and which was inaugurated on the fourth Thursday of April; fake news, and an article on the International Day of Girls in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), a date that has been celebrated for eleven years on the fourth Thursday of April and was declared by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) with the intention of increasing the presence of women worldwide in telecommunications.

With eight years of existence, the editors of Tonito intend to continue growing together with our children in all schools, through the circles of interest and through the telecommunications museum, a propitious scenario for the technological education of Cuban children..

Journey to the history of telephony in Cuba

Another example of the ETECSA’s interest in promoting values among Cuban and international children is the publication of scientific and literary content. This is the case of the book De teléfonos te hablamos…

According to its presenter, Alena Bastos, in previous years ETECSA investigated the existence of scientific-technical literature for readers from fourth grade to high school, which, as she corroborated, was very scarce.

Alena Bastos, editor of Tono

From this lack arose the idea of making a book with the history of the telephone, not just any history, but a history accompanied by many images of philately that narrate, throughout the entire copy, the history of this device that today is an essential part of human life.

The book, whose idea was born during the presentation of an issue of Tonito at the Communications Museum, and with a prologue by writer Ernesto Pérez Castillo, teaches through its five chapters about who was the inventor of the telephone, in which city he made it work and when it was first used in Spanish.

In addition to the curiosities and technical aspects related to what is perhaps the most used technological device of our days, the book dedicates a chapter to our National Hero, José Martí, who on several occasions, in his extensive work, referred to the telephone experiment.

With this invitation to history, to knowledge, to good know-how, and as an excellent opportunity to delve into the mysteries and wonders of communication, the three issues of the supplement Tonito and the book De teléfonos te hablamos... were placed in the hands of the children of the Doña Concepción Arenal de Ponte Elementary School. The latter serves as a posthumous tribute from the Cuban Telecommunications Company to its author, Lucía Sanz Araujo (director of Pionero magazine), who died as a victim of COVID in March last year and devoted her professional life to children's and young people's publications and philately in Cuba.