Carlos Alman most likely refers to Carlos Almanzar, also written Carlos Almánzar, the Dominican father of rapper Cardi B. Cardi B publicly identified her father as Carlos Julio Almanzar in a 2020 statement, while stronger independent reporting generally uses Carlos Almanzar or Carlos Almánzar. The shorter “Carlos Alman” is best understood as a search-name variant rather than a firmly established surname.
His documented biography is relatively concise: Carlos is from the Dominican Republic, built a working life in New York, and spent years driving a cab. Cardi B has said he came to the United States in 1990 and drove a cab for nine years, while contemporary reporting from The Fader independently described him as a New York cab driver during the period when Cardi’s own career was beginning to grow.
Unlike his famous daughter, Carlos has not built a public career around entertainment or celebrity. The strongest account of his life comes through his work, family role, Dominican background and a small number of documented public appearances.
Key takeaways
- Carlos Alman is best identified as Carlos Almanzar/Almánzar, Cardi B’s father.
- Cardi B publicly called him Carlos Julio Almanzar, though that wording is not independently established as his legal name.
- He is from the Dominican Republic and worked as a New York cab driver.
- Cardi B and Hennessy Carolina are his daughters with Clara Almánzar.
- The latest independently verified public appearance located was with Cardi B in Washington Heights on September 13, 2025.
Carlos Alman profile summary
| Detail | Verified information |
|---|---|
| Name used by Cardi B | Carlos Julio Almanzar |
| Common published name | Carlos Almanzar / Carlos Almánzar |
| Known for | Being Cardi B’s father |
| Background | Dominican |
| Documented occupation | Former New York cab driver |
| Children with Clara Almánzar | Cardi B and Hennessy Carolina |
| Latest independently verified appearance located | September 13, 2025, Washington Heights, New York |
Dominican background and New York family life
Carlos is from the Dominican Republic, a detail consistently supported by stronger profiles of Cardi B’s family. In a 2018 GQ interview, Cardi described her father as Dominican and said he spoke to her exclusively in Spanish.
Cardi has also said that Carlos came to the United States in 1990. That date comes from her own public account rather than an immigration record, so it is best presented as her recollection of his migration history.
His background became part of Cardi B’s own New York upbringing. Her mother, Clara Almánzar, is Trinidadian, while Carlos’s side of the family connected her to a Dominican household and to Washington Heights. Profiles of Cardi’s childhood have described her life between the South Bronx and time spent with paternal family in Washington Heights.
That context matters because Carlos’s public significance does not come from a separate celebrity career. It comes partly from the family and cultural environment in which Cardi B grew up.
A working life behind the celebrity story
The clearest part of Carlos Almanzar’s career is his work as a cab driver in New York City.
A 2016 Fader profile reported that Carlos was driving a cab and wanted to leave that work. At the time, Cardi was considering buying him a bodega.
That idea did not last. In a 2017 Fader follow-up, Cardi explained that she had decided the bodega was too risky. She then offered to support her father directly, but according to her account, he preferred having a job to simply receiving an allowance.
It is one of the most useful details in his biography because it shows a documented family decision at a moment when Cardi’s financial circumstances were changing quickly. There is no need to invent a larger personality portrait from it; the choice itself is revealing enough.
Cardi later said in 2020 that Carlos had driven a cab for nine years. The duration comes from her account, while the cab-driving career itself is independently supported by contemporary reporting.
Family, separation and Cardi B’s upbringing
Carlos and Clara Almánzar are the parents of Cardi B and Hennessy Carolina. Cardi B, whose birth name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, was born in 1992; Hennessy was born later.
Cardi has said that her parents separated when she was around 13 years old. An earlier Fader profile described the split more broadly as happening when she was a preteen. Those accounts establish the general period, but they do not provide a reliable legal divorce date.
That distinction is important because some online biographies give precise marriage and divorce years without strong supporting records. The safer account is simply that Carlos and Clara separated during Cardi’s early teens.
There is also stronger secondary support that Carlos has children beyond Cardi and Hennessy. Essence has reported that Cardi has six additional siblings through her father. The private identities and biographies of those siblings are not sufficiently established to warrant a detailed roster.
His relationship with Cardi B
Most of the public record about Carlos comes through Cardi B’s own descriptions of their relationship.
In addition to saying that he spoke to her in Spanish, Cardi has shared smaller family details over the years. People has reported that after the birth of her daughter Kulture, Carlos helped by running errands for her in New York.
Cardi has also referred to herself and her father as “personality twins” and linked him to memories of humor, food and Dominican family life. Those comments are best understood as Cardi’s own description of their relationship rather than an independent assessment of Carlos’s personality.
A more public glimpse came in 2019, when Cardi objected after a television correspondent turned a camera toward her father. Nylon’s report on the incident noted that she raised concerns about his lack of security and did not want him casually exposed on camera.
That moment helps explain why Carlos remains relatively private compared with other relatives of major celebrities. It shows Cardi setting a boundary around his exposure, rather than proving that Carlos himself has adopted a formal public stance on privacy.
The bodega story and a later Washington Heights appearance
The proposed bodega became one of the more memorable threads in Carlos’s public biography.
In 2016, Cardi was considering buying him a bodega because he wanted to stop driving a cab. By 2017, she had dropped the plan and offered financial support instead. Carlos, according to Cardi, preferred to work.
Nearly a decade later, there was an interesting but unrelated echo. On September 13, 2025, Reuters photographed Carlos arriving with Cardi B at a bodega pop-up in Washington Heights. Reuters identified him directly as her father, Carlos Almanzar.
There is no evidence that the 2025 event had any connection to the bodega Cardi considered buying for him in 2016, or that the earlier business plan ever became a family venture. The significance of the Reuters appearance is simpler: it provides the strongest independently verified recent public sighting of Carlos.
Current status
As of September 8, 2026, the latest independently verified public appearance located for Carlos Almanzar was the Reuters-documented Washington Heights event on September 13, 2025.
That wording matters. Later social-media posts and video claims exist, but they were not authenticated strongly enough to establish a newer verified public-status date.
His current occupation is also not firmly documented. People has described him as having retired from cab driving, but no strong current source establishes whether he now works in another capacity. Former New York cab driver is therefore more precise than presenting “retired” as a confirmed 2026 employment status.
His current residence and relationship status are not publicly confirmed strongly enough to state.
What is not firmly established
Some of the most commonly repeated facts about Carlos Alman are also among the least secure.
Several biography websites publish March 19, 1958 as his date of birth, but no birth record, direct first-person statement or sufficiently authoritative independent source was found to support that date. A separate 2025 social-media result referred to a “65th birthday,” which does not align cleanly with the widely circulated 1958 claim.
For that reason, Carlos Almanzar’s exact birth date and age should not be stated as confirmed fact.
The same caution applies to his finances. There is no credible public net-worth figure backed by financial disclosures, a complete asset record or another dependable basis for calculating his personal wealth. Cardi B’s wealth cannot be used as a proxy for her father’s.
Online claims about exact height, religion, current residence, detailed private-family rosters and a supposed acting career are similarly weak or unresolved.
One entertainment database does list a “Carlos Alman” as an actor associated with Kate and Mim-Mim, but no reliable production source connects that credit to Cardi B’s father. A separate namesake, former MLB pitcher Carlos Manuel Almánzar, is also a different person.
Conclusion
Carlos Alman is best understood as Carlos Almanzar, Cardi B’s Dominican father and a former New York cab driver whose public life has remained relatively limited despite his daughter’s fame.
The strongest record is modest but meaningful: Cardi has identified him as Carlos Julio Almanzar, described his move to the United States and years of cab driving, and spoken about their family connection. Contemporary reporting documents his working life, while Reuters placed him beside Cardi in Washington Heights in September 2025. Beyond those points, many of the precise personal details repeated online remain less certain than they appear.
