Mari Carmen García Vela

Short Biography

Born July 16, 1977, in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Florida, Carmen Garcia spent much of her youth struggling with an eating disorder. “My desire to gain weight was always prominent but I just couldn`t work up a normal appetite in my growing years, ” she recalls. “Not to mention the fact that I`ve always had a fast metabolism and I`ve always been the hyperactive type.”Carmen Garcia tried extreme measures to add weight to her skinny frame, but nothing she did seemed to work. “In high school, I began to eat a lot junk food and still no weight gain!” she says. “The years rolled by and finally I began to see a little gain but it was not muscle gain. It was flab!”That’s when Carmen Garcia decided to take control of her body and she joined a local gym where bodybuilders and trainers took the time to teach her how to shape her physique. Carmen took their lessons to heart and she soon began pumping iron and even became a certified aerobics instructor. “That`s how my body transformed itself, ” she explains.However, it wasn’t until she moved to Los Angeles to become a private personal trainer that Carmen Garcia considered plunging headfirst into the competitive world of modeling. “I picked up an issue of Bob Kennedy`s Oxygen magazine and the cover model really inspired me!” she recalls. “I had realized that you don`t have to be super young and super thin to start a modeling career.” That inspiration led Carmen Garcia to find an agent and she soon began appearing in a number of prestigious magazines such as Just Swimsuits, Musclemag International, American Curves, Planet Muscle, Muscular Development, Hot Boats, Low Rider, and Iron Man Magazine, among others.One of the world’s most sought-after fitness models, Carmen Garcia has appeared in the pages of FHM, Planet Muscle, Oxygen, and American Curves. “I have been busting my tail to get my name out there and it has really paid off, ” she says proudly.