Façamos Químicos: a "certidão de nascimento" dos cursos de química de nível superior no Brasil

This work presents a brief retrospective of José de Freitas Machado's prominent role in the creation, development and consolidation of Chemistry undergraduate courses in Brazil. Freitas Machado defended in many occasions the importance of chemical studies for the economic development of this country. We analyze, here, his important paper "Façamos Químicos" [Let's Make Chemists] (1917), seminal for the implantation of Industrial Chemistry undergraduate courses in Brazil.