Symphony of the Marionettes (2012) Painting

Alvaro Labañino was born in 1989 in Miami, Florida, son of a working-class family. His father, a self-employed handyman, is from Santiago de Cuba, Cuba and immigrated to the United States soon after Fidel Castro's takeover of the island nation. His mother, a self-employed housekeeper, is from La Lima, Honduras and immigrated to the United States in search of a life better than in poverty-stricken, crime-ridden Honduras. Labañino was raised in Little Havana, one of Miami's most historic neighborhoods, as well as one of its most impoverished, but opportunely attended South Miami Senior High Magnet School of the Arts' magnet program for Fine Art, graduating in 2008. He then attended Miami Dade College—the first in his family to go to college—and thereafter went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (majoring in Painting, with a minor in Art History) cum laude from Florida International University in 2012. He currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.​