VP#76: Lifelong Activist Carlos Garcia on His Music Project Monkeys with Drums, His Fictional Alter Ego in Vegan Feature-Film-in-the-Making Miss Liberty, & Veganism, the Relationship Bomb

How does a person go from Burger King to vegan in two hours? A pre-screening of the classic animal rights film Earthlings did it for Carlos Garcia over two decades ago! Carlos has been playing drums since he was a kid in New York City. He grew up in a large, music-loving family listening to salsa and Latin music every day. Carlos is constantly recording and creating music with many diverse artists around the world. When Carlos isn’t playing music, he’s busy growing his own food and being an activist for peace, animal rights, human rights, GLBT rights and holistic, vegan living. Carlos lived in Los Angeles most of his life and went vegan over two decades ago after seeing an early test screening of Shaun Monson’s film Earthlings and realizing he was paying to do horrific things to these beautiful, innocent creatures and left the theater vegan. He literally went from Burger King to vegan in two hours. Carlos is now 66 years old, and no one ever guesses his age correctly. He considers himself living proof that keeping your spirit and body clean of torture and poison, does a body (and spirit) good. Carlos was living on Maui, Hawaii for 16 years doing animal activism and being percussionist for Mick Fleetwood’s side project, Mick Fleetwood’s Island Rumours Band. He has spent the last year in different parts of California, Portland and New York soul-searching after the loss of his mother and the recent devastating fires on Maui. He's in NYC right now to help raise funds for an upcoming vegan feature film with Victoria Moran called Miss Liberty. Simultaneously, he's promoting his music video "It’s OK To Love Me" and putting together the live band. Resources: Monkeys with Drums: https://monkeyswithdrums.com/ Support the making of Miss Liberty, the movie: https://misslibertythemovie.com/ The World Peace Diet by Dr. Will Tuttle: https://www.worldpeacediet.com/ Earthlings, the movie: https://vimeo.com/237062854