Popular Searches:
Carlos Alman is a Dominican immigrant who worked as a New York City taxi driver for nearly nine years to support his family. Born March 19, 1958, he’s best known as the father of Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B. Despite his daughter’s global fame, Carlos maintains a private life focused on family values and Dominican cultural traditions.
Most people know him as Cardi B’s father. But Carlos Alman has his own story worth telling.
He’s a 67-year-old Dominican immigrant who spent years navigating New York’s crowded streets as a taxi driver. He raised eight children across different relationships, including superstar rapper Cardi B and social media influencer Hennessy Carolina. While his daughters live in the spotlight, Carlos prefers the shadows.
His mother, Esperanza Almanzar, shaped his early values in the Dominican Republic. Those lessons about family, respect, and hard work travelled with him when he immigrated to the United States in 1990. He arrived in the Bronx with little money but big hopes for his family’s future.
Carlos grew up surrounded by merengue music and Dominican traditions. The Caribbean nation where he spent his formative years values tight family bonds and community support. These cultural foundations became the blueprint for how he’d raise his own children.
In 1990, he made the difficult choice to leave everything familiar behind. The move to New York City meant adapting to a new language, different customs, and the relentless pace of urban life. Washington Heights and the Bronx became his new home, neighbourhoods already filled with Latino families navigating similar transitions.
The Dominican Republic in the late 1980s offered limited economic opportunities. Like thousands of other immigrants, Carlos saw America as a chance to build something better. That dream required sacrifice, patience, and the willingness to start from zero.
Taxi driving became Carlos’s path to providing for his family. For nearly a decade, he worked long shifts dealing with traffic, demanding passengers, and the physical toll of sitting behind a wheel for 12-hour stretches.
The job required more than just driving skills. You needed patience when passengers complained about routes. You needed street smarts to navigate quickly. You needed stamina to work weekends and late nights when most people were sleeping.
His taxi became a classroom on wheels. Every shift taught him about different cultures, neighbourhoods, and the diverse fabric of New York City. More importantly, it taught his children what real work looks like. Cardi B watched her father leave before dawn and return exhausted, day after day, year after year.
That example planted seeds. When she faced her own struggles trying to break into the music industry, she remembered her father’s persistence. The same determination that kept Carlos driving through difficult times helped Cardi B push through rejection and doubt.
In 1991, Carlos married Clara Mercedes Almanzar, a woman of Trinidadian and Spanish descent. Their marriage blended two Caribbean cultures under one roof, creating a rich environment for their daughters.
Cardi B arrived on October 11, 1992, followed by Hennessy Carolina on December 22, 1995. The household mixed Dominican merengue with Trinidadian calypso, traditional Dominican mondongo with Clara’s Trinidadian cooking. Spanish and English flowed interchangeably through their Bronx apartment.
Carlos already had six children from a previous relationship, including daughters Maciel Almanzar and Nicauly Villalona and son Fernando Almanzar. Managing a blended family of eight kids presented challenges, but he remained committed to all of them.
The marriage to Clara ended in divorce in 2005, when Cardi B was 13. In her own words, she wasn’t deeply affected by the split. Her parents continued co-parenting without drama, showing their children that separation doesn’t mean abandoning family responsibilities. Clara eventually remarried and moved to the Dominican Republic, while Carlos stayed in New York.
Carlos gave his daughters something money can’t buy: unshakeable pride in their roots.
He introduced Cardi B to Dominican cuisine, especially dishes like mondongo that she still talks about with fans. He played merengue and bachata around the house, sounds that later influenced her willingness to collaborate with Latin artists like Bad Bunny and J Balvin. He spoke Spanish with his daughters, giving them the bilingual skills that appear throughout Cardi B’s music.
When Cardi B calls herself Afro-Latina, she’s honouring what both parents taught her. Her father’s Dominican background, combined with her mother’s Trinidadian heritage, created the multicultural identity that defines her artistry. You hear it when she switches between English and Spanish mid-verse. You see it in her music videos where Dominican flags wave proudly.
Beyond culture, Carlos taught his daughters about respect and discipline. He maintained strict household rules about education and behaviour. Those boundaries weren’t about control but about preparing his children for a world that wouldn’t always welcome them warmly.
The work ethic mattered most. Cardi B has said repeatedly that watching her father grind as a taxi driver inspired her own hustle mentality. When she was struggling to escape poverty and an abusive relationship, she thought about her father’s example. When she faced criticism for her past, she remembered that honest work has dignity regardless of what others think.
Not every celebrity parent wants the spotlight. Carlos represents a different kind of success: building a life, providing for your family, and finding peace in simplicity.
His choice to stay private isn’t about being aloof. It’s a deliberate commitment to the normalcy he worked hard to create. While Cardi B performs for millions, Carlos prefers quiet family gatherings where traditional Dominican food covers the table and relatives share stories.
In 2019, a Univision reporter tried to film Carlos without permission. Cardi B immediately shut it down on social media. “Don’t put my father on TV because my dad doesn’t walk around with security, and you don’t know people who’re gonna harm my dad,” she said firmly. Her protective response revealed real safety concerns that shape his privacy choices.
She respects his boundaries because she understands what he sacrificed. The man who drove a taxi for years so she could have opportunities doesn’t need fame. His reward comes from watching his daughters succeed while staying true to themselves.
At 67, Carlos has retired from taxi driving. He stands about 5 feet 11 inches tall with a lean build, black hair, and dark brown eyes that reflect his Dominican heritage. Details about his current daily life remain scarce because that’s exactly how he wants it.
He maintains close relationships with all his children, including the six from his first marriage who stay out of the public eye. When Cardi B became a mother herself, these family bonds deepened. Carlos now has grandchildren, though their identities remain private.
His legacy lives on in how his daughters present themselves to the world. Cardi B doesn’t hide her accent or change her style for anyone. She incorporates Dominican flags into her videos and celebrates her heritage in songs. That confidence comes directly from a father who taught her to own every part of her identity.
Carlos Alman’s journey mirrors millions of immigrant stories rarely told with this level of attention. He represents the quiet heroes who work behind the scenes while their children achieve dreams that seemed impossible just one generation earlier.
His story teaches us that influence doesn’t require a microphone or a stage. The lessons Carlos taught through his daily example shaped one of hip-hop’s most successful artists. Every time Cardi B talks about working hard or celebrates her Dominican roots, Carlos’s voice echoes through her words.
The immigrant experience he embodies continues to enrich American culture. His decision to leave the Dominican Republic in 1990 changed not just his family’s trajectory but also contributed to the multicultural fabric that makes New York City what it is today.
Most importantly, Carlos shows us that success has many definitions. While Cardi B collects Grammy awards and platinum records, her father measures success differently. He built a stable life from nothing. He raised children who know their culture and value hard work. He remained true to his values despite his daughter’s fame, creating constant pressure to step into the spotlight.
That’s the real story of Carlos Alman: a Dominican father who gave his children roots so strong that fame couldn’t pull them loose, and wings so broad that nothing could limit their flight.
