Published in August 2016, this profile by Instituto PACS portrays Maria de Lourdes, 41, leader of the Movimento Unido dos Camelôs (MUCA), who confronts the city government’s violent repression of informal work. A street vendor for nearly two decades and mother of four, Maria recounts how, days after giving birth, she was brutally assaulted by a municipal police officer and left with a broken nose — an attack that turned her toward collective organising. The text follows her path from domestic worker to movement leader, weaving together themes of pride and humiliation as street vendors face beatings, confiscated goods that are never returned, and exclusion from the image of a city preparing to welcome Olympic tourists. It is part of a series of life stories of women in the Olympic city.

The text was originally published on PACS’s Medium and later made available in PDF for public consultation in the library’s digital archive.

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