Saraiva was left at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a Portuguese religious charity, when she was 3 months old.

She performed in public for the first time with the children's company of the Teatro da Rua dos Condes, which frequently did shows on the private stages of the nobility.

Saraiva made one film, Lisboa, Crónica Anedótica (Lisbon, Anecdotal Chronicle-1930), directed by José Leitão de Barros.

She married the actor and impresario Chaby Pinheiro on 17 March 1918, when she was 52 and they combined to form a new theatre company and to work together.

After being widowed for the second time she retired from public life, publishing in 1938 her husband's memoirs "Memories of Chaby", which he had been unable to complete during his lifetime.