ABSTRACT: The article focuses on the important presence of beliefs in the work of Sandra Pesavento. While investigating the city of Porto Alegre, the author did not neglect the mythical universe on which the population relied their way of being and feeling. The beliefs which the text is focused on go beyond what is traditionally estabilished as religious. In this sense, the focus goes from the belief in science and reason, typical of the republican elite of Rio Grande do Sul in the late 19th century, to the belief in the supernatural power of men and women of the people, cultivated by the city´s poor population kept apart from society.