In the first decade of the 20th Century, Rio de Janeiro lived through a phase of euphoric transformation. The then capital of the Republic gained avenues and magnificent buildings in the desire to become a postcard city. In this context, it was also necessary to regenerate the metropolis from the traditions that disclosed the inconvenient presence of a vast part of its population. Such conflict was extended to the carnival, as the gaieties considered barbaric conflicted with the esthetic patterns of the multitudes of the grandes sociedades, groups inspired by the masquerades of the European Carnival. In this dissertation, the representations of the popular groups of the carnival of the Carioca Belle Époque will be analyzed through the research on the primary source of the city´s main daily newspapers within the first years of the 20th Century. Via these representations, it is possible to establish how a dimension of ambiguity emerges from the mediation of the popular culture produced by the press, as well as the discourses that legitimates the manifestation of the cordões, ranchos and other groups in the Carnival.