In the early afternoon of this Friday (13), Maria (fictitious name used to preserve her identity) was sitting in a chair in the corridor of dormitories at the Pastor Carlos Portela Elderly Reception Center, a screening and reception facility of the city hall, in Ilha do Governador, in the north of Rio de Janeiro.
She has been in the reception ward since March 15, when she was rescued from a situation analogous to slavery after an anonymous tip. Maria worked in the same house for 72 years without receiving any salary or labor rights – vacations, 13th salary, FGTS, Pis.
He arrived at the reception center with his identity documents and CPF, in addition to the bus card for the elderly and a Bradesco bank card.
Maria was born in Vassouras (RJ), on October 12, 1936, in the central-south region of the state known as Vale do Café, a coffee production hub in Brazil, where there were about 250 farms linked to the harvest of the grain along the 19th century.
In the house where she lived most of her life, in the Cachambi neighborhood, Maria slept on an uncomfortable narrow sofa. Slowly and with many pauses, but always conscious, Dona Maria reports, mixing dates and events, a little of the relationship she had with the family she lived in.
“They were very good to me, I ate pizza, participated in parties. I went to the godmother of a wedding in Candelária. They travel abroad a lot, bringing gifts”, says Maria, with a calm face and attentive eyes around, referring to the “family”.
Cristiane Lessa, social worker and director of the Pastor Carlos Portela Elderly Center, explains that the institution’s function is to take care of post-rescue and provide medical and psychological care for patients.
“She came to this family when she was 12 years old, the family that exploited her is also from Vassouras. The work she did here was transgenerational. She supported a mother, children and grandchildren of this family in exchange for food and She has no idea what she has lived through. She couldn’t see herself in a situation of exploitation and did all the housework like a ‘black mother'”, says Cristiane.
According to the director of the place, the family filed a pension for Maria, but there are no records that she has access to the amounts deposited by the INSS.
When she arrived at the plant, Maria was insecure, scared and withdrawn. Now, she is already adapted to the routine of care and activities of the place, says Cristiane.
“We did emergency care with sleeping and food facilities. It’s a process to take her to all the care she needs. Little by little, we’re giving her life a new meaning”, says the social worker.
Despite talking a lot and being open to receiving visitors, she remains oblivious to the situation of exploitation and deprivation she has lived through most of her life.
In addition to regular medical consultations and psychological care, the routine at the temporary shelter includes occupational activities in drawing workshops, walks and leisure time, where Dona Maria watches television programs in the company of 49 other elderly people who also live, for the time being, in the central.
The investigation, conducted by prosecutor Tayse de Alencar Macario da Silva, of the Public Ministry of Labor of the 1st Region, in Rio, seeks to track down relatives of Dona Maria, whose family consists of 11 brothers.
Maria must remain at the plant indefinitely until the investigation is completed.
“It has everything to work out. We manage to reinsert it little by little, because it is a construction. But everything still needs to be matured, because we need to work on this reinsertion with a family bond that can actually welcome it. We will rebuild little by little” , said the director of the municipal unit.
The report was unable to locate the family suspected of keeping the elderly woman in conditions analogous to slavery. The Public Ministry of Labor sent the note below about the case and did not inform the name of the lawyer defending the accused.
The Public Ministry of Labor in Rio de Janeiro informs that the procedure is in progress and will not talk about the case so as not to jeopardize the investigation.
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