Ana María Cristina Polo González (born 11 April 1958) is a Cuban-American lawyer and television personality, best known as an arbitrator on the Spanish-language court show ''

Caso Cerrado ''Caso cerrado'' (''Case Closed''), formerly ''Sala de parejas'' (''Couples' Court''), is a Spanish language court show that aired on Telemundo from 2001-2019 in which Cuban-American lawyer Ana María Polo arbitrates cases for volunteer parti ...

'' and the Anglophone spin-off counterpart ''Ana Polo Rules''.

Early life

Born in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

when she was 2 years old. They later moved to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, where she participated in different musicals including ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical in two acts with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set t ...

'', ''

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

'' and ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...

'' in addition to singing with the choir of ''Jubilee'', which was invited by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

to sing at

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...

in Rome as part of the celebration of the 1975

Holy Year A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year is mentioned as occurring every 50th year (after 49 years, 7x7, as per Leviticus 25:8) during which slaves and prisoners would ...

Career

Polo graduated from the

University of Miami School of Law The University of Miami School of Law (Miami Law or UM Law) is the law school of the University of Miami, a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. Founded in 1926, it is the oldest law school in South Florida, graduating its first ...

in 1987, and is a member of the

Florida Bar The Florida Bar is the integrated, or unified bar organization for the state of Florida. It is the third largest such bar in the United States.

. She was a member of the law firm of Emmanuel Perez & Associates, P.A. in

Coral Gables Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Cora ...

, Florida. From 2 April 2001 to 10 December 2019, she arbitrated the popular Spanish language TV show ''

'', which airs on

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

and can also be viewed on the YouTube channel. In 2010, ''Caso Cerrado'', which Polo created, was nominated for a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program. This marked the first time a program from a Spanish-language network had been nominated for an Emmy. In 2017, Polo created the English-language spin-off of ''Caso Cerrado'' called ''Ana Polo Rules'' with the same synopsis, however it was canceled after only 15 episodes due to declining ratings.

Personal life

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

survivor, Polo frequently speaks about it and raises funds for the cause.Soraya (2007). ''Soraya: A Life of Music, a Legacy of Hope.'' John Wiley and Sons, She has also advocated for

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

throughout her career.

References

External links

* Living people 1959 births American lawyers Cuban lawyers American women lawyers Cuban women lawyers American television personalities Cuban television personalities American women television personalities Cuban emigrants to the United States Lawyers from Havana Opposition to Fidel Castro American democracy activists Cuban democracy activists American LGBTQ rights activists Cuban LGBTQ rights activists Age controversies American feminists Cuban feminists {{Cuba-law-bio-stub