On October 24, 1902, the Santa María volcano in Guatemala erupted catastrophically, one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century in Latin America. Located near the city of Quetzaltenango, it produced a massive Plinian column, pyroclastic flows, and lahars that devastated surrounding villages, killing thousands. The eruption ejected significant ash and sulfur, contributing to short-term global cooling. It occurred amid political instability in Central America, exacerbating local hardships.

The Santa María eruption profoundly impacted Latin American literature and poetry by symbolizing natural forces intertwined with social upheaval, influencing modernist poets who grappled with regional identity and catastrophe. Guatemalan and broader Central American writers drew on the event's imagery of destruction and renewal in works addressing colonialism and resilience. It paralleled themes in global Romantic and post-Romantic poetry where volcanoes represented sublime terror and rebirth, enriching the literary canon with vivid depictions of environmental trauma in the Global South.