All images © Kevin Moloney


Iraldo Alves de Oliveira pauses from work during a 100-degree summer day, sweat beading on his face from brow to chin. Oliveira and son Junior work together as construction contractors. A new-found work ethic has lifted Oliveira and his family into Brazil's middle class.



Feet bare, Oliveira lays tiles around a swimming pool for an evangelical doctor. Brazilian evangelicals, such as Oliveira, are often sought as employees and laborers on the assumption that they are honest. Rigorous rules of social behavior demand that believers stay on the straight and narrow path.



Iraldo stops in the kitchen of his hand-built home to tease daughter Anita. All members of his immediate family attend evangelical churches in the town.



Oliveira blesses a meal before sitting down with his family. Once unlikely to spend any time at home, Iraldo now cooks one or more meals a day with his wife Nilsa.



Oliveira, wife Nilsa, left, and sister-in-law Graça leave the Oliveira home to attend a nightly church service. The Oliveira's well-appointed home boasts of financial success greater than many neighbors in the small Rio suburb.


All images © Kevin Moloney

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