January is not only the month with which the new year bursts forth, but also a prospect of challenges, hopes and fantasies, especially, for childhood which resumes the school year with great eagerness, according to mum, dad and their grandparents.

For this reason, cultural promotion among some members of the José Martí Cultural Society and the Provincial Council of Visual Arts, as well as families residing in the community of the Urban Historic Centre, carry out extracurricular activities at the Pedro Miguel Aguayo Primary School, in first grade, with the purpose of fostering the habit of reading, and the appreciation of artistic presence through the design and illustration of the book as an object containing literary texts.

Put that way, it may perhaps seem incredible to some, but it is not so. When each contributes from their experiences and initiatives, any dream can become a reality.

Thus, the aforementioned school can serve as a reference for other educational centres with that result; that is, the presentation of a tale with which various generations in Cuba have grown up.

It concerns the recognised text for children The Blue Coachman, the work of the Matanzas writer Dora Alonso, which, according to some philologists, is a «classic of Cuban literature, perhaps one of the greatest challenges for authors of books for the little ones.» This creation attends to diverse components of life, approached from the author’s imagination and destined for children.

Before conversing with the boys and girls about the author and her work, some historical data were provided, for example, the environment where the text was conceived, which dialogues with the excellence of illustrations (drawings and paintings) by Félix Rodríguez, and the cover and design, also of extremely high artistic value, by José González Rodríguez.

The activity for the promotion of reading and the arts was intended by Dalia López Gutiérrez, graduate in Primary Education, first grade educator and cultural managers, who facilitated the meeting.

During the presentation of the children’s literary work, a copy of the book’s first edition was used — in 1975, by the Editorial Gente Nueva, of the Cuban Book Institute — whose pages revealed the magic of each of the moments forming the tale.

Firstly, how «Martín Colorín is introduced»: «On the road to the coast of Varadero, near Carboneras, lived a coachman, called Martín Colorín, who had two children, a mongrel dog, a white horse and an old coach.»

It was also added: «From looking at the sea for so many years and years, Martín ended up desiring that everything around him be of the same blue colour»; and, subsequently, what happened to the same man was commented on: his wishes and decisions, how it ends followed by his children, applying the colour blue to his animals and dog, venturing together on a unique journey.

The Blue Coachman, by Dora Alonso, is a wonderful journey of characters through realities, unrealities, and vice versa, where expressions of flora, fauna and human beings coexist, in the writer’s imagination and enrich the inexhaustible childhood fantasy.