What is the significance of the earthquake and the forest fire scenes in Roma?
I think they are representing the state of mind of Cleo.
Is this a viable theory or are there other hints for how they figure into the story? Or have the creators explained their significance?
Roma is the story of Cleo through her eyes. I do think the earthquake and forest fire scenes symbolises her state of mind. It shows all the turmoil in her life and and that she doesn't have a bit control over them.
However there's another aspect of the movie.
Roma is basically the memoir of its director, Alfonso Cuarón's own childhood and his city. He said that in many interviews.
“Ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are scenes taken out of my memory,” Cuarón has said, per IndieWire. “Sometimes directly, sometimes a bit more obliquely. It’s about a moment of time that shaped me, but also a moment of time that shaped a country. It was the beginning of a long transition in Mexico.” The film is a love letter both to Cuarón's mother, Cristina Orozco, and to his family's maid, Libo Rodríguez, who played a pivotal role in raising him. "
Mexico was hit by a powerful earthquake in the year 1985 when Cuarón was growing up. He saw how the country rebuilt itself from the debris and included it in the movie.
Apart from this, the forest scene can be a hint to the societal change, i.e. he leaves them open to maybe-Marxist-maybe-not interpretation.
