[2] Her mother, a practicing Catholic, also approached anarchist ideas[2] under the responsibility of her husband, who when he found an interesting article on anticlerical themes would read it to her.
Elvira's entire family, therefore, related to anarchism in some way, an example of which was her brother, who was once arrested for propagating the Jornal Espartacus in Rio de Janeiro which also resulted in his dismissal from his job.
[3] Amidst the turmoil after the founding of the Anticlerical League and the spread of anarchist ideas, Elvira got started in union and political life.
Due to the high expense of becoming a businesswoman, and also the low amount her small sewing workshop gave her, Elvira was unable to pay her female employees properly and so chose to dedicate herself only to union work.
[6] In May 1919 she founded, with Elisa Gonçalves de Oliveira, Carmen Ribeiro, Isabel Peleteiro, Noêmia Lopes, Aida Morais and other professionals, the Union of Seamstresses, Hatters and Associated Classes, still in the first moment of the feminist movement in Brazil, this Union formed part of the anarchist workers' movement, which proclaimed the situation of women in factories and workshops.
[9] From there, it is possible to notice the importance that Elvira acquired within the labor movement, as she was chosen to chair the opening table of the Congress, and also to speak, being much applauded by those present at the end of her speech.
[9] She presented anarchist and anticlerical plays, performed by amateur groups on the stages of the halls of workers associations in Rio de Janeiro.
[8] In 1921, on the recommendation of José Oiticica, she joined the Pro-Flagelados Russos Committee, which aimed to assist populations victims of the drought in Russia, which occurred after the Civil War.
[10] In the period 1921–1922, she participated in the magazine Renovação, directed by the Portuguese Marques da Costa, giving her name as the person responsible for the vehicle (since the director was a foreigner, which was not allowed at the time).
In one of the magazine's articles, entitled A Festa da Penha, after showing the happy but also sad side of the promise-takers, climbing the Penha Staircase on their knees, Elvira Boni ended with the following statement: "And you, women, who are indispensable to the success of any initiative, you must impose yourself by abandoning all these manifestations of vice and depravity; you must combine all your efforts, seeking education as the main factor for a conscious victory, and alongside men, train in battalion of a society where the jail is replaced by the School and hate does not exist instead of love".
It is possible to observe in her seven published texts an anticlerical stance (which combats the political, moral or social influence of the clergy), even defending free love and the choice of partners, as can be seen in this excerpt from her article entitled O divórcio, from October 1912[11] - "It seems incredible that this Jesuitada in a frock coat and so many others in a cassock are so concerned with the resolution that half a dozen have taken of men to repel the prejudices of the infernal Mother Church in the clash of struggles (...): they still try to impose their will on the private lives of those who find themselves divorced from their prejudices".
[8] During her participation in a working class theater group, Grupo Dramático 1º de Maio, in 1917, Elvira met the merchant Olgier Lacerda, one of the founders of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), whom she married some time later.
But even so, she became involved in Socorro Vermelho, an international communist organization whose main objective was to collect and channel funds for families of persecuted and imprisoned workers.