This chapter explores the evolving memory of Santiago de Cárdenas, a self-educated eighteenth-century Peruvian naturalist whose life and work were marginalized during his time but have since been reimagined through transmedial adaptations. Cárdenas, who wrote a scientific treatise and self-narrative, is best known for his project to build a flying machine. A pioneer in aeronautics, his contributions were overshadowed by colonial authorities, social skepticism, and popular ridicule. By analyzing Ricardo Palma’s “Santiago the Flyer” (1875), Julio Ramón Ribeyro’s The Life and Passion of Santiago the Birdman (1960), Juan Ortiz’s aerial performance (2009), and the TV series La Perricholi, 2011 (Directed by Michel Gomez. América TV. Vix Premium.), this chapter examines how Cárdenas’s narrative has been shaped to engage with the cultural and historical contexts in which these adaptations were created. Drawing on the transposition of the “edge effect” from ecological studies to adaptation theory, this chapter interprets these works as spaces where tensions between diverse cultural influences and power structures generate literary and artistic innovation. This chapter demonstrates how these adaptations not only preserve and redefine Cárdenas’s memory but also challenge entrenched historical narratives, offering new possibilities for a more dynamic understanding of the past. Ultimately, this study affirms the transformative potential of adaptations as sites of cultural negotiation and memory-making.