On August 30, 1587 CE, a powerful earthquake struck the city of Quito, in the Viceroyalty of Peru (now Ecuador). The quake caused significant damage to the city's colonial buildings and was a major disaster for the Spanish settlement. This event is recorded in colonial chronicles and is one of the earliest documented earthquakes in the Andean region.

The 1587 Quito earthquake is documented in Spanish colonial records, which provide a valuable account of the event and its aftermath. The disaster was interpreted through a religious lens, as was common in the colonial period, and contributed to the literary tradition of chronicling natural events in the Americas. The earthquake is part of the historical backdrop for the literature of colonial Latin America, a period that saw the emergence of a unique literary voice.