Her paternal grandfather, Baron Vitorino José Carneiro Monteiro, had an illustrious military career: Though he was born in Recife, he participated in memorable campaigns in Uruguay and Paraguay, having also fought in Pernambuco, Panelas, Miranda, and Jacuípe.
[2] In 1911, she married Bartlett George James, a man of English origin who was elected as federal deputy for the then-Federal District of Rio de Janeiro.
Then Marshall Fontoura's famous police unit, under the government of Artur Bernardes, attempted to invade her house on the pretext of searching for bombs.
[2] Dedicated to armed resistance with the goal of social reform in Brazil, James participated in the revolutionary movement in São Paulo in 1924, under the leadership of the general Isidoro Dias Lopes.
She was heavily involved in Brazil's women's rights movement and in the "Oil Is Ours" campaign for natural resource nationalization,[3] whose rallies she stayed at until the bitter end, even though they were often broken up by police on horseback.
She was an active participant in the campaigns of 1945, which brought down Getúlio Vargas, and of 1964, in opposition to the situation in which the country found itself, which culminated with the victory of the military movement.