This work describes and analysis the historical construction process of the profession collector, which is in course in the Gramacho Metropolitan Embankment, Rio de Janeiro, since 1996. The study sustains that the official recognition of the profession - through the formalization of this activity - will correspond to a citizenship rights conquest by the collectors. The goal of this work is to identify and to describe the main instruments for this professional identity construction; its organization means and strengthening mechanisms. The theoretical discussion builds up from the concepts of poverty, social exclusion and citizenship; territory and territoriality; social stigma and identity. By adopting a quanti-qualitative method, the field work suggests that, due to their permanence in a working informality, the workers of jardim gramacho territory have limited access to the market; are socially stigmatized and have systematically denied their citizenship rights. The research focused in a first hand account from collectors in different stages of this professional recognition conquest. Through the direct speech of these social actors it was possible to understand how they perceive and recognize themselves as professionals, although the great majority of them are still not formally recognized as such.