2023-06-16 23:22:37
Lúcia, who is now 44 years old, is one of the thousands of workers who are rescued each year.
The worst thing that happened to the Brazilian Lúcia (not her real name) was not that her mother died when she was a child, nor that her father gave her to a family because he might not take care of her.
The worst thing is that that family kept her for almost three decades as a ‘modern slave’, without salary, with exhausting hours, precarious conditions and practically isolated.
Until this Thursday, when the Brazilian authorities freed her from the house in which she lived for 27 years, since she arrived as a teenager.
Lúcia, who is now 44 years old, is one of the thousands of workers who are rescued every year “in conditions similar to slavery”, a scourge that is a consequence of the structural racism that has plagued Brazil for centuries.
The drama happened in Teresina, capital of the impoverished state of Piauí (northeast).
The Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) received a complaint that warned of the “submission of a woman” in a house and launched an operation with the Federal Police (PF).
“It is the reification of the worker”
The identity of the victim was kept secret, but the prosecutors in charge of the case told the G1 news site details of his ordeal.
The woman is originally from the northeastern state of Maranhao, where she arrived at the age of 14. After her mother’s death, her father donated it to a family of hers, where she worked for three or four years as a domestic worker.
The matron of that house sent her to her daughter-in-law’s house, where she was subjected. “It is the reification of the worker. She was ‘donated’ from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, from mother to son, ”explained prosecutor Guilherme Madeira.
The woman had no salary, did not enjoy holidays or days off, and works exhausting hours.
She had no friends, she had lost contact with her family and lived practically isolated: she only went out to buy things for the matron or to church. She did not finish basic education.
“I worked every day of the week, first taking care of the midwife’s children, cleaning the house and cooking. The children grew up, she continued to clean the house, took them to school, took care of the two dogs, ”explained Moura.
He slept in a precarious room, without furniture to put his things. “Her belongings were in a box, and a suitcase in which she had some clothes, which she did not use very often, she put in the dog’s house,” Moura recounted.
“Feeling of gratitude”
But how can someone spend so many years like this? The prosecutor explained that even she, who arrived as a disadvantaged teenager, was not aware that she lived in slavery-like conditions.
“You think that you are receiving a favor, that you are being favored because the person gave you shelter and feeds you. Many times, especially when it happens from a very young age, you believe that it is necessary to work to repay in some way that kindness that you are receiving, ”she said.
“That is the feeling that always occurs in these situations, of gratitude and that you are not being exploited,” he added.
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