Do you remember the Cifra calculators from FATE Electrónica? Starting with the model 311, surprisingly beautiful in design, between 1969 and 1980 they “went viral”: they dominated between 50% and 30% of all Latin American markets (except Brazil) from Argentina to the border of Mexico with the USA. They practically ousted IBM and Olivetti, cornered the American brands Hewlett Packard, Remington and Victor, and stopped the “unstoppable” Japanese Sharp, Toshiba, Casio and Citizen for 5 years.
In 1975, and already without customs protection, Argentina, thanks to such companies, remained in the “Top Ten” of handheld and office calculator manufacturers. But some of the executives of FATE Electrónica (“a bunch of moishes and amounts”, as the most stupid business leaders called them) began to suffer threats and an attack by the Triple A. However, the guys persisted. In 1979, FATE Electrónica fought against the Japanese invasion by escaping into the future: it built one of the first two desktop computers in the world, capable of competing with an IBM mainframe the size of a wardrobe. The other desktop computer was built by two hippies in a garage in Palo Alto, California, and seemed to have less “banking” to conquer markets: it was the Apple I.
Japan's electronic dumping and the hostility of Minister Martínez de Hoz against Fate Electrónica finally won, and to protect ALUAR and FATE Neumáticos, the Madanes closed their most brilliant and offensive plant in 1980. It was bought by a Japanese firm, to dismantle it. The Argentine Silicon Valley could have been San Fernando, province of Buenos Aires.
The manufacture of complex weapons in Argentina is older. It had its official debut in 1927, when President Torcuato Alvear founded the Military Aircraft Factory. And from 1941 to 1970, with Fabricaciones Militares (FM) and the Río Santiago Shipyards, this defense industry was the most advanced in South America, and had a huge influence on the civil industry. Without Fabricaciones Militares, Argentina would not have even produced electric cables or sulfuric acid.
The oddity of Pérez, in any case, was belonging to a very technical branch, like the Navy, but especially adverse to national equipment. The numbers define it. A review of the Histarmar catalog of Navy ships between 1900 and 2013 shows a cumulative total of 318 ships of all types, of which 56 were built in Argentina.
If we narrow the field to “designed and built” in Argentina, to exclude those assembled under license, there are 47 ships that are truly Nac & Pop, among which there are only 12 combat ships. But if the title is “Combat ships designed and built in Argentina”, we are left with 10 small ships: 8 trackers and 2 patrol boats scrapped long ago. 10 out of 318 units.
The dates of commissioning of these totally local warships are significant: they entered service between 1937 and 1946. Europe and the US were not selling anything, because they were at war or preparing for it. We had to manage on our own not only with the weapons, but with the spare parts and components of the tractors, machine tools, locomotives, automobiles and even airplanes. And unlike the rest of the region, as a result of 70 years of excellent public education, we were a country full of engineers and technicians. Argentine industry did not grow out of a cabbage.
We prefer to remember the times when the country used its best capital in war in peace: research, the development of cutting-edge human resources, and technological creativity. Because he achieved much more, and with zero Argentine casualties.
For this reason, this note goes to Pérez, Torelli and Shugt.
El “Atlantic Conveyor”, una containera reconvertida. Fue “el tercer portaaviones” de la Task Force hasta que el 25 de Mayo le dieron dos misiles Exocet. Se hundió con helicópteros y equipos críticos para la logística de las tropas británicas desembarcadas. Atrasó 2 semanas nuestra rendición...
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