She spent part of her childhood in Washington, D.C. and New York City as her parents, who were Trotskyists, were forced into exile during Brazil's Estado Novo regime.
In 1966, as the military dictatorship increased its repression of the press, she found that work as a journalist was becoming unsafe and insecure, as several papers had been forced to close.
By this time, she had separated from her husband, the sociologist Luciano Martins de Almeida, and was looking for a secure profession that would enable her to bring up their three children.
In October of the same year, she was assigned to the United Nations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she began specialising in environmental issues at the multilateral level.
She was in this position until 2005 when she was appointed ambassador in Paris, taking the role at the time the "Year of Brazil in France" was celebrated, involving 400 events and attracting 15 million spectators.
Reaching the mandatory retirement age on 3 January 2006, she was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, allowing her to stay in Paris until the beginning of 2008.