Every one in the favela Nova Brasília knows Zé Cabo, and he knows everyone. Perhaps that is because, since the favela’s formation in the 1950’s, he has been responsible for getting running water, sewage, electrity, a health clinic, schools and a police station for the community. Or maybe it is because he makes it his business to know the lives and problems of everyone around him because he believes things can improve. When the founders of a new elementary school in Nova Brasília wanted to name the school after him, Zé Cabo declined: "You should only have things named after you after you’re dead."

Zé Cabo migrated, with his whole family, to Rio de Janeiro in the 1956 from the state Rio Grande do Norte, part of a mass migration from the poverty stricken North and Northeastern parts of Brazil to urban centers - in search of jobs, education, and a life that offered more than illiteracy on a sugar cane plantation. When he arrived in Nova Brasília, it was not much different from the North where he came from—it was still semi-rural and had no running water or electricity. But he would change that. While he worked until his retirment at sixty for the military, he lived as a community leader and organizer for Nova Brasília - he founded and was the first president of the Resident’s Association.
Zé Cabo lives in a two-story home in Nova Brasília with his wife, two of his daughters, and several grandchildren. While he has lived and been a leader in Nova Brasília for more than forty years, the favela has drastically changed around him. Now, at 73, he has a thousand and one tales to tell about his neighborhood—and they don’t all have happy endings. Now he worries about dust from the sale of cocaine in front of his house causing health problems for him and his family. He goes to visit the widows of old friends who can’t make ends meet and live in fear of catching a bala perdida (lost bullet). He blames the vagabundos (lazy bums), as he calls the drug traffickers, for preventing further improvements to the favela.