(Trio Romantico)

Romeo Villalva Tabuena

This painting featuring a trio of musicians was done shortly after Tabuena moved to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. A "trío romántico" is a group of vocalists-guitarists, with origins in Hispanic America, that performs romantic songs, based on rhythms like bolero, vals and pasillo, mostly. The ensemble may be composed of three musicians: first guitar, second guitar and requinto guitar.

Mexican painter Romeo Villalva Tabuena was born in Iloilo City, Philippines on August 22, 1921. He studied architecture at Mapúa Institute of Technology in Manilla and painting at the University of the Philippines. He continued his studies at the Art Students League in New York in 1952 under American artist, Will Barnet, and in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1954 with Henri Goetz.

In 1955, Tabuena settled in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where he continued to live and work until his death in 2015.