Lourdes is a lawyer and the author of the 40-chapter self-study textbook, Ultimate Portuguese, Lourdes has been a Portuguese language instructor at Rennert's school since 1982. She arrived in New York two years before that, working briefly as a lawyer here. But Lourdes found the allure of teaching too strong. Lourdes has been a Portuguese language instructor for the State University of New York at New Paltz's Portuguese immersion program for six years. She holds a Masters Degree in Portuguese and Brazilian Literature from Catholic University in São Paulo, Brazil, and a Juris Doctorate from Estácio de Sá University, Rio de Janiero, Brazil.