In 1943, Moraes passed the MRE admission test on his second attempt. He was assigned as vice-consul at Los Angeles. He published a book of poems, "Cinco elegias" ("Five Elegies"), followed by "Poemas, sonetos e baladas" ("Poems, Sonnets, and Ballads"). After his father died in 1950, he went to Brazil, then returned to Los Angeles and published two more books: "Livro de sonetos" ("Book of Sonnets") and "Novos poemas II" ("New Poems II"). During the 1950s, he worked for the Brazilian consular service in Paris and Rome. He often visited historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda (father of the musician Chico Buarque de Holanda), who was teaching in Italy as a visiting scholar.