Vicissitudes in the history of a Mexican manufacturer of microscopes

Abstract

In this paper we present the story of a Mexican company dedicated to the manufacture of microscopes. The emergence of the company, in 1973, was sponsored by the model of industrialization under the scheme of import substitution, in a context in which the manufacturing of these products was considered primitive by developed countries like Germany, the United States and Japan. It was the first company in its field installed in Latin America, whose business activity has been little known in the business history of Mexico and the Americas. In the narrative we emphasize the cultural factors and subjectivity of its founder that influenced the historic configuration of the company; however, we do not take a voluntarist posture, because although we admit a dynamic conception of the subject at the same time we recognize the existence of structures that press in the course of corporate action. Thus, the entrepreneur's personal history is interwoven with the microscope company’s and both are intertwined with other dimensions of influence, at meso and macro levels; the first one, relating to the links or networks with other companies, research institutions and government; the second one, relating to structural conditions such as economic development models established in Mexico.