Tiana lives in a crumbling and violent housing project in the North Zone of the city that was built in the 1970’s to house the dislocated residents of Catacumba - a favela demolished by Brazil’s military dictatorship. She and her husband share their two bedroom apartment with Tiana’s daughter, son, and granddaughter. Tiana is responsible for supporting the household, raising her children and grandchildren, and finding work for her daughter and herself. Tiana left her home in 1970 in Caxambu, Minas Gerais (a city in Brazil’s interior), along with most of her sisters and brothers, and migrated to Rio de Janeiro in search of better job opportunities.

Name a job and Tiana has tried it. In the thirty-two years since she moved to Rio de Janeiro, she has worked as a receptionist, a maid, a cook, a hair dresser, a baby sitter, and a researcher on urban poverty. Since she left school at 21 (after only completing her first year of high school), she has taken courses in English, information technology, and research training - anything to get access to better jobs. None of her attempts have led to better jobs. She has always wanted to go to university, but "who would take care of the children" she asks?

Since she arrived in Rio de Janeiro, she has managed to establish a moderately successful catering business from her contacts working as a maid. She goes to the homes of wealthy middle-class cariocas (residents of Rio de Janeiro) and stages anything from elegant dinner parties to birthday feasts - she does everything from the cooking to the decorations. In August 2000, she began working as a community researcher for a study on urban poverty. Because the study required locating participants from a previous study in 1969, she has had to enter numerous favelas and low-income communities across the city - in spite of the danger from drug traffickers and military police. She says that the former residents of Catacumba (some of whom are her neighbors) that she has tracked down have become her "most important friends."