Ana María Polo
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| Ana María Polo | |
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| Born | April 11, 1959 (age 47) Havana, Cuba |
Ana María Polo (born in Havana, Cuba on April 11, 1959) is a Cuban judge who has become famous among Hispanic television viewers in the United States.
Polo, who fled Cuba's Communism with her family, grew up partly in Miami and partly in Puerto Rico, where she attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro. She had an early marriage that ended in divorce, has one adult son, and remarried in 2001.
She attended Florida International University where she received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, then attended and received a law degree from the University of Miami. As an attorney, she specializes in Family Law and is licensed to operate in the U.S. state of Florida. In what she has described as her most terrifying experience as a judge, she once witnessed a man murder his wife after Polo had just divorced the couple. Polo was not harmed by the killer.
Ana María Polo began appearing on television on February 21, 2002, in her daily Telemundo Network show Sala de Parejas (in English, Couples' Court), where she solved multiple and varying cases between couples as arbitrator. She is known for yelling at guests who are disrespectful toward her, other people in court, or the law. Polo is not a judge on the show, but rather, an arbitrator who settles differences between her guests (the litigants), who all voluntarily come on the show. The guests sign legally binding contracts before appearing before her whereby they agree to comply with her decision on their case. The decisions she makes are legally binding and can be legally enforced.
The September 11, 2002 Sala de Parejas show was dedicated to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In that show, Polo did not see any litigating couples. Instead she talked to members of some victims' families, and she sang a song dedicated to them toward the end of the show.
On April 14, 2006, her show was renamed Caso Cerrado (in English, Case Closed) and the format altered so that she could receive a larger variety of cases to resolve, as well as add new parts to the show where she could help educate the viewing public on a variety of subjects related to the law. Along with the new format came a new theme, for which she herself wrote the lyrics.
Ana María Polo is a breast cancer survivor who campaigns tirelessly throughout Latin America and the U.S. to increase awareness of the disease. She is also very outspoken on issues of domestic violence and injustices, especially when directed at the poor and those facing discimination of any sort.[citation needed]
