Voces del Prado

Technological advances

Felícitas Martínez Pozuelo, Administrative Technician, 1971-2018

I’m from the Stone Age. Having been here for so many years means that I’ve seen the entire technological evolution. In the beginning everything was typed, then with electric typewriters and finally with computers. At a later date I got a monitor, after which I moved on to a computer. I’ve had everything. Without knowing anything about the subject I was the first to introduce programmes and do computer stuff. I asked myself why, why were they making me suffer in this way? I was the first to use a fax machine. They also installed a telex, which I was the only person to use. I tell you I was everyone’s right-hand woman. This has got to be done, so please Feli, help! I’ve done an amazing amount of different things here.
If you saw me using the telex it was hilarious. They installed it on top of a standard four-drawer filing cabinet, which was complicated enough in itself as I’m quite short and I had to write very high up. Do you know what we used the telex for? Solely for communicating with Russia when they wanted us to loan Las majas. This was because telex messages were legally binding. Anything written by telex was legally binding, unlike a fax. If I had the resources I had now it would have been fantastic. In those days our beloved José María wrote the library index cards out in pen and ink. They are still kept somewhere, if they haven’t thrown them out yet.