National Telecommunications Institute

INATEL's success is intriguing in itself. It is a state-of-the-art technological center, a national reference in telecommunications, with professionals spread all over the world, located in a bucolic town in the south of Minas Gerais which, in the 1960s, had its economy based on farming and cattle raising, just like the other towns in the region. At this point, the question posed in the project arose, which I had always asked myself when I was a student at the institution, but had never bothered to look for the answer. Based on Santa Rita do Sapucaí in the 1960s, a city with an absolutely agricultural economy, how was INATEL founded and consolidated in this city in such a strong way, reaching such a scale in such a short time of existence? Why was the city chosen for such an institution? Despite its proximity, it is outside the Rio-São Paulo axis, a fact that would jeopardize the industrial hub that the city has become. This is the starting point for this research...