Rio de Janeiro: A Brazilian woman enslaved as a maid from the age of eight for almost four decades and forced into marriage has been rescued in a rare crackdown on domestic slavery, officials said.
The 46-year-old was found living in a small room in an apartment in Patos de Minas, in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. She had worked for the family for most of her life without pay or any time off, according to labour inspectors.
Madalena Gordiano worked for 38 years for the same family in Brazil without payment or compensation in slavery-like conditions. Credit:Screengrab/Globo/Fantastico
The victim was given up as a child by her destitute parents to the family of Dalton Cesar Milagres Rigueira, a professor at Unipam, a not-for-profit university, and raised by his mother, inspectors said.
"They gave her food when she was hungry, but all other rights were taken from her," Humberto Camasmie, the inspector in charge of the rescue, said.
Icreate1 on December 22nd, 2020 at 14:21 UTC »
This has been common in Latin America for hundreds of years. I’m not surprised it still happens. In Mexico, my aunt had her Native maids and she was terribly cruel to them. She used to give them our used tea bags. That was their treat. If they were “bad”, she locked them in a room for a few days. This wasn’t uncommon.
wileyrielly on December 22nd, 2020 at 14:18 UTC »
She was found after giving a note to neighbours asking for hygiene products.
"Lend Me soap to shower, you'll receive a prayer"
That tore me up man.
murderfacejr on December 22nd, 2020 at 13:33 UTC »
An interesting and emotional article by a person who grew up as a child in a house with an indentured maid in America (they immigrated from the Philippines).
Edit: as u/eamonn33 points out, the woman in the article I linked (and the woman in OP's story) were slaves and not indentured, as their was no contract or perceived end date. Also below others have mentioned that there is some controversy/distaste regarding the authors tone. There are some links and conversation regarding that in the comments as well.