Rufino was born in Santos, São Paulo to a low-income family and worked as a child.
At age 19, she began her studies in healthcare, later graduating from nursing school.
[1] Rufino was a leader in the Afro-Brazilian literature and cultural arts movement.
[2] In 1990, she founded Casa de Cultura da Mulher Negra (Black Women's House of Culture), the country's first black women's centre.
You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This biographical article about a human rights activist is a stub.