Biography
Born January 29, 1948 in Havana, Cuba, young Cristina was brought up in the strict image of her grandfather, magazine publisher Don Francisco Saralegui, known throughout Latin America as "The Paper Czar". He introduced her to journalism. In 1960, at the age of 11, she left Castro's Cuba to start anew in Miami's Cuban exile community. She attended the University of Miami, majoring in mass communications and creative writing, while beginning an internship with Vanidades, the #1 women's magazine in Latin America. As she had received all of her formal training in English, she then had to teach herself how to write in Spanish, which, according to her, "proved to be a great challenge".
In 1979, while still working for three of the most successful magazines published in Latin America, Cristina was named Editor-in-Chief of the internationally distributed Cosmopolitan en Español, the Spanish-language version of the Hearst magazine Cosmopolitan, which was circulated in all Latin American countries in addition to the United States. Cristina held this position for ten years until she resigned to become Executive Producer and host of "El Show de Cristina". With the success of her Spanish-language television show, Pa'lante con Cristina (1989), she decided to test the waters of the English-speaking market by hosting and producing (in association with CBS Television Group) The Cristina Show (1997) in English.
During the summer of 1992, her TV show aired for a limited 13 week run. The show, distributed nationally by Columbia Pictures Television, generated very respectable ratings in addition to receiving favorable reaction from the press. Cristina was president of CSE Productions, had her own line of fashionable eyewear and her own magazine, and is an active celebrity in AIDS research and education. She and Univision parted ways around 2010, and she now lives a private life with her husband and former manager, Marcos Avila, a former musician and a founding member of the The Miami Sound Machine. The couple have three children and reside in Miami Beach.
