Carol Raffi Tavares LidoAlbiza was recently interviewed by TheCelebrity.Online Magazine and below is the Q&A session we had with Ms. Carol.

Carol Raffi Tavares As Cover Story Interview Feature – TheCelebrity.Online March 2023 Edition

How do you introduce yourself?

Carol Raffi Tavares: To introduce myself and profession is a bit of a challenge. I have been through a great deal of trauma for the last several years and I didn’t even know how to introduce myself for a while. You’re familiar with aphasia I had that and I also had a walking coma called catalepsy I had to come out of all of that. It’s hard to know how to introduce myself.

First I am a man trapped in a woman’s body so I have that to deal with. What am I what do I introduce myself as is I have such a multifaceted background that I can’t even keep up with it myself. I have been a television director I have been in radio I have written poems and been published probably about 400 times. I have been a public speaker. I belong to some of the most reputable and highly esteemed organizations in the world as a contributor in Media and many up here on LinkedIn. Where would I begin with six careers behind me in a restaurant as well. I’m just not your average guy off the street.

How was the transition from your childhood into adulthood/teenage and what good and bad things do you remember?

Carol Raffi Tavares: I was born in Beverly Massachusetts and we left when I was about 6:00. I remember some things about it vaguely and we went to South Florida to Fort Lauderdale and settled there. Don’t recall a great deal of anything other than alligators and peacocks from the Everglades and horseback riding wild ponies and then at 11 years old I wrote a book.

The book was called the blooming of the roses and I was considered at that point a prodigy. I didn’t even know what a prodigy was. I had it publisher that was interested in publishing it and I was in three newspapers. The Boston globe the Beverly times and the Fort Lauderdale news in the front page.

I grew up in the Fort Lauderdale news and my mother worked there and I grew up around the greatest photographers and writers that you could possibly find. I was very fortunate to have wonderful mentors who carried me into my career as a writer.

I began writing books and then I decided to go into poetry and it was a natural for me I’ve written over 700 pieces. And I have been published 400 times.

I was also a beach bum in Fort Lauderdale Florida for two or three years and I remember that with a great joy in my heart for the freedom that it was.

My childhood I guess you could say that there was a period of dancing and singing and just being very free with music and growing up with a lot of it. My mother sang and wrote and we both sang and wrote together.

One of my mentors when I was 11 was a fellow named rick shaw who was the first DJ in America to play the Beatles. He was one of the most popular DJs that was ever in the southeastern United States. I would work with him off and on all my life.

It’s hard to remember dates and times when it comes to my childhood. It was not a comfortable arrangement. We had a very controlling grandmother who wreaked havoc on the family with all kinds of manipulations and I had to have a lot of therapy for that later. I won’t go into all the personal details they’re much too personal but it was about my father who was black Portuguese and she was swedish and there was some racial animus going on and manipulation that would make Machiavelli look like a nice guy.

Aside from that I like to believe that most of my childhood was better than some and probably not as good as most. My grandmother controlled the money and that was the deciding factor of what happened with my family in the way we lived.

My grandfather died in my arms when I was two. He was a Tower at 6’8 and swedish to the nth degree. His name was John Thorvald and he was called the swedish Prince. I regret not being able to have more time with him but I know he’s always there.

As I said my grandmother was a tyrant and she came on the Lusitania from Sweden unable to speak any English and yet was able to manipulate her way into cooking for the school for the deaf and cleaning and making sure she met my grandfather by which we were going to be ruled by her through all that I can remember of my childhood.

I’m jumping around it’s hard to remember everything but I do remember that there were a lot of good times. When I was 18 I got a super sport Camaro and that was my joy and I was able to race with that and have a wonderful time with that car.

My father was a racer. He raced in New Hampshire and he also was in used cars and we had a lot of fun with that because we have cars all over the place and I think I drove just about everything there was and raced motorcycles when I was 11. I can remember that being a wonderful time. And I can remember learning a lot about cars and wanting to build a hot rod. I also wanted to be a jet pilot when I was a kid but I never got that.

The other thing I remember about my childhood was that I learned to box when I was three. My father brought home boxing equipment and a boxer dog because the man that bought one of his cars couldn’t afford to pay for it so he took that and four chickens. I really love boxing I really love physical activity and I was an athlete all my life.

Struggle – What hardships have you faced during your life?

Carol Raffi Tavares: My life has been a very difficult thing to live in. For one reason or another it seems that everything has been taken from me again and again and again and I’ve had to rebuild myself again and again and again. I have endured a great many physical assaults and I have some experiences with stalkers and also I have to say it I have is abducted and kept captive for a great long time I am free of that now and I’m going into my life. There will be a book that will be coming out it will be called freedom is not a word which is what will explain everything that happened since I doubt it happened to anyone else on the planet.

What things people usually do not know about you?

Carol Raffi Tavares: I have a 20,000 people roughly online and pretty much all of them know me very well… They know I’m an open book and they know I’m a cat rescuer and that’s what I’ve done and there isn’t a whole lot that people don’t know because I am so open with who I am. I have my page up here and pages on Facebook dedicated to cats and there’s one of my poems says all I am is cats… What some might not know is that I wanted to be a ballet dancer and instead turned out to be an Aztec war dancer.

They might not know that I am swedish, Moroccan, Azorean Portuguese and Metis First Nation Canada.

What make you unique from your competitors in the industry and life?

Carol Raffi Tavares: I am handicapped and I cannot work so there is no industry to speak of there is just cat rescue education up online and I am also going to be doing a webinar in May on cats in Nigeria and the importance of them to the country. I am dedicated to cats and that right there makes me different. I have been a part of thousands of rescues of cats online and in physical and that has been the Great Joy of My Life.

What are your major upcoming events?

Carol Raffi Tavares: The most important thing to me right now is to take back the life that was taken from me and to take my cat back who was taken from me as well. I will have a webinar going out to the world that will be about the cats of Nigeria in May. I will focus on the African wildcat until the people of Nigeria that if they are not aware of it that is the cat that all domestic cats come from. They were domesticated 10,000 years ago and as a result they have been apart of the life of everyone on the planet since. I am proud to have been invited to give the presentation. It will be the first one I have done in quite some time.

What are your diet preference and physical measurements?

Carol Raffi Tavares: I am a very healthy being. I’ve been fortunate that I grew up in a household where there was a great awareness of the importance of diet and the influence of nutrients and all that contributed to it I have maintained it a very fine and careful diet all my life weighed the same all my life and I will not go into the details but I am very proud to say that I have maintained myself very well with isometric exercises and simple routines that make keeping myself together very comfortable.

What expert advice would you like to share?

Carol Raffi Tavares: I’d like to say that whatever you do in your life make sure you know that you are very pleased to do it and enjoy doing it as best you can. I also like the quote the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lighted. Fill your life with arts and cultures meet as many people from around the world as you can let them light up your days and teach you the ways of their countries and consider wisdom and the art of knowing is a very important part of it. For indeed without knowledge and awareness we are walking to a blind tunnel without an end. I’m happy to say I’m at the end of mine. Enjoy your life. Live it like you may lose it in a moment. I did and I have intent to take it and live it there’s no one else can imagine.