This article presents the partial results of a research about the recognition of cultural diversity on museum narratives. From an analysis of the formation of alterity on different exhibitions in several museums in the Iberian Peninsula, Brazil and Mozambique, we sought to identify the hegemonic narrative processes and the processes of silencing and forgetting the difference. We argue, from the Portuguese cultural speech that without the inclusion of narratives about the diversity culture does not provide a guiding mapping to address innovation.