White women for marriage, mulatto women for f——, Negro women for work.

I can remember a scene over and over again during my childhood: a white woman who lives in a luxurious apartment is screaming to her domestic servant, ‘Maria’. The servant comes running to attend to her mistress, submitting to every type of humiliation and verbal aggression. All these Marias who were so abused and humiliated were black, poor, uneducated residents of the outskirts – characters similar to the women that watch these scenes, women also called Maria. But instead of feeling indignant and rejecting this type of professional relationship, these poor viewers identify with the women who give the orders, who have the power, the money, who are aggressive and independent. My mother was also a Maria, a poor domestic servant. However, she believed that one day she would be happy like the principal character of the novela, Vale Tudo (Worth It All, broadcast in 1986). It seemed as if my mother suffered more anxiety for this character, Olivia, than for anyone else in the world.