María Angelina Acuña Sagastume de Castañeda (31 January 1905 – 14 June 2006) was a Guatemalan writer of prose and poetry.

[5] She participated in many poetry contests, winning numerous awards, as a means to open the door to publishing[6] and her skillful use of language helped her succeed and gain recognition a society which still mostly believed that men's intelligence was superior to women's.

[7][8] Unlike some of her fellow Guatemalan female writers, like Elisa Hall de Asturias who gave up writing due to the then-prevalent misogyny,[9] or Magdalena Spínola who faced ostracism during the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico Castañeda, Acuña was able to manipulate language and use poetic forms to address the culture without appearing to be a threat.

[10] Rather than promoting the heroic fatherland united under "Father God", Acuña celebrated her nationalism by employing imagery of mother earth's fertility to evoke both pride in her homeland and address the patriarchy of her times without explicit confrontation.

After the Guatemalan 1944 coup d'état the new Constitution, promulgated on 1 March 1945 granted the right to vote to all literate citizens, including women.