[ravieira]

I'm Brazilian and watched this with my American gf and although she found the photography and story beautiful she understandably couldn't really relate to the context.

Here in Brazil (perhaps specially in the older Northeast, where I'm from) having a maid is still very strong but has changed considerable in the past two decades.

It used to be the case that these maids would work for a family for decades without any of the guarantees that Brazilian work laws guarantee. Whether or not one agrees with those laws is secondary to the fact that these workers were largely kept out of it for ages.

It used to also be the case that families would require maids to sleep in the house. Woman who had their own family often had to accept spending nights on their "patrões" home to make sure they were there ready to work at 6am.