Maria
LISBON, 2023-2024
MARIA tells the story of Ana Maria Jeremias, an Angolan woman whose life as a domestic worker and caregiver echoes the experiences of countless other women. Her story sheds light on the silent yet vital contributions these women make to our daily lives and economies. In her own words, she spent her entire life cleaning.
Inspired by questions raised by writer and activist Françoise Vergès — "Who cleans the world?" and "Why does this work have a racial and gender profile?" — this project seeks to explore the overlooked histories of racialized women in Portugal, a country whose social structures remain deeply shaped by its colonial past.
Ana Maria was born Utima, the Umbundu word for "heart”, a name that aptly reflects the woman she has become: a figure of strength and affection who has worked in and cared for the homes of countless families for over four decades.
At the age of nine, she left her homeland, family, and friends under false promises of education — something that never happened. She was brought to Coimbra by a Portuguese family, only to later discover that they had forged her father’s signature to authorise her departure. Ana Maria had been trafficked.
Upon her arrival in Portugal, she received a new name, Ana Maria, and a new birth year, 1965.
Her life became a cycle of domestic work, verbal abuse, and racial discrimination. At the age of 21, however, she managed to free herself from that house and that family when she met the man who would become the father of her only child. Together, they moved to Lisbon and settled in a shantytown, hoping to find the freedom she had never known.
A few years later, she managed to buy her own house in Rio de Mouro, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Lisbon. She now commutes daily into the city center, where she works tirelessly.
By focusing on Ana Maria's story, I hoped to encourage critical reflection on the privileged positions of middle-class households and to reclaim the memories that dominant narratives have sought to erase from her life and history.
Through photography and extensive research based on documents and images from Ana Maria's personal archive, this work aims to recover and restore the memories erased from her history. It asserts her fundamental rights to identity, memory, and citizenship while honoring her life and the stories of countless women like her.
Ana Maria Jeremias
Maria Abranches
Mário Cruz / Narrativa
Ana Maria Jeremias, Júlia Casares, Ricardo Lopes, Mário Cruz, Beatriz Correia, Leonor Correia, Ália Magalhães, Luís Correia, Madalena Quirino da Fonseca, Rui Ramalho, Avó Mariana, Sr. Orlando, Changuito, Alexandra Lucas Coelho, João Neto, Bárbara Monteiro, Elisa Freitas, Emanuel Amorim, Guillermo Vidal, Rafaela Araújo, José Fernandes, André Dias Nobre, Filipa Leite Rosa, Rodrigo Vargas, Rui Costa