Eduardo Barreiros

Vocation

Notable

Eduardo Barreiros rose to become an immensely successful entrepreneur and one of Spain’s most prominent industrialists. Barreiros was a motor manufacturer and made trucks, tractors, buses and finally saloon cars. Born in Galicia to a family of modest means, Barreiros created a large industrial complex from scratch, and despite lacking higher education, during the difficult years from the 1950’s to 70’s that directly created 25,000 jobs plus some 100,000 subsidiary jobs in auxiliary industries. These figures translated into a substantial source of wealth, which contributed to the consolidation of a middle class that played a key role in the establishment of democracy in Spain. He started with a small workshop in Orense and founded Barreiros-Diesel in Madrid (1954) to manufacture diesel engines using his own technology, and later expanded his production to include trucks, buses, tractors, generators, forklifts, etc. In 1963, working in partnership with Chrysler, he launched a business enterprise that placed him in the international market, manufacturing the Dodge Dart and SIMCA automobiles. Barreiros's professional legacy lives on today in the Production Center of PSA Peugeot Citroën Group, an industrial complex based in the large factory he built on the sincere christened Avenida de Eduardo Barreiros in Villaverde (Madrid). He was a mechanical genius, called the Spanish Henry Ford. He died 19 February 1992 Link to Wikipedia biography (Spanish)