Benedita da Silva, the first black vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro, is profiled. Through her efforts to keep hope alive for impoverished Brazilians, laws were recently enacted to protect the rights of Rio's street children and domestic employees.
"White Brazilians are not accustomed to seeing Blacks in positions of power and seeing Blacks with money in shops, night clubs and hotels. Having more Black American tourists will cause white Brazilians to treat Blacks differently and that will cause them to get a different image of all Blacks. And that can help change attitudes," Medeiros said during a recent interview in Rio.
