24/08/2026
Today we commemorate the 114th anniversary of the birth of Cuban artist Mariano Rodríguez (1912–1990).
José Mariano Manuel Rodríguez Álvarez was born in Havana on August 24, 1912, the fifth of eight children. Art was present in his family from an early age: his mother, Amelia Alejandrina Álvarez Álvarez, had studied with prominent Cuban academic painters Leopoldo Romañach and Armando Menocal. His father, José Mariano Rodríguez Cabrera, was born in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands.
In 1928 after attending the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Habana, Mariano enrolled at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied drawing from life and modeling. Around this period, he began to devote himself increasingly to drawing and painting, marking the beginning of an artistic journey that would make him one of the essential figures of Cuban modernism.
Today, we celebrate his life, work, and enduring legacy.
Mariano Rodríguez
August 24, 1912 – May 25, 1990
Photo: Mario García Joya (Mayito) Havana, ca. 1959