Cristina L. Vazquez has always maintained several passions and persevered to engage with them all. From providing legal representation to Spanish-speaking clients as one of the few bilingual attorneys in the area, to creating local jobs and positive representation through her art form.
She describes being drawn to both the courtroom and tension-filled fiction on screen from an early age.
“This might sound kind of funny, but when I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of episodes of Matlock,” she laughs.
Vazquez was ultimately inspired to practice law, though, after first obtaining a degree in business, and then graduating with a law degree from Syracuse University in 2000. She pursued an independent practice shortly after in 2006.
The case that she considers the most significant of her career was argued in 2021 in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court, where she successfully asserted her client’s right to remain out of jail pretrial, regardless of his U.S. citizenship status or potential impending ICE detainers.
“It was out of Gloucester County; the court was concerned that [my client and another defendant] needed to be detained because they were here illegally. So, during COVID, [they were] kept in jail. …We went to the Appellate Division, and the Appellate Division sided with us: you can’t detain people simply because they're here illegally,” Vazquez explains.
When the prosecutor’s office filed an appeal, Vazquez had the opportunity to represent major humanistic change throughout the state and to eliminate the issue throughout the state with her case as a precedent (New Jersey v. Lopez-Carrera).
“That was the best moment of my career as an attorney, because we’ve been doing this for years: fighting for our clients to stay in the country, to not be put in harm’s way or held in custody pending trial,” Vazquez affirms.
It was then that she had an epiphany—not to pivot directions in her career, but to simultaneously pursue a new, completely different one. Although her experiences in the courtroom are not the subject of her novels, it gave her ample practice as a vivid storyteller—especially within jury trials.
“A lot of folks have asked me if I was going to write legal dramas. And honestly, right now, I’m not. It may happen at some point, but I also have an interest in the paranormal… [and] history. The Mansion of Cervantes is a period-piece book, and what inspired me to write it is that I actually love haunted mansions, and I also love anything that has to do with the World War II era,” Vazquez says.
Soon after The Mansion of Cervantes’ publication in 2022, she took her thrilling tale of a haunted mansion in ‘30s Austria from page to screen. Since catching the interest of Hollywood actors, producers and directors; undergoing script changes in which Vazquez personally ensured the integrity of the original text and characters; and selecting the perfect mansion in New Jersey that best captures the vision, The Mansion of Cervantes is expected to begin filming later this year.
“The beauty of it is that we’ve had a lot of support here in New Jersey. I want to give New Jersey, especially South Jersey, a platform as well—that we can make movies here… [and] I want to try to use as many local vendors as possible for this film,” Vazquez explains. “I’m really excited because I didn’t even think that it was possible. I didn’t know anybody in Hollywood when I started doing this.”
Vazquez’s rapid success is inspiring, but at the heart of her pursuits is the continuing theme of making space for, defending, and uplifting diversity. Her production company, Apex Cultural Films, emphasizes inclusivity and strives to share stories from across the globe.
“I haven’t left my practice of law—I love practicing law. I love to help people, but I also wanted to branch out and use more of my creative side, because that’s something that I love to do. I love to write, to tell stories, and I also want to spotlight different cultures,” Vazquez affirms.
In the midst of continuing to pursue law, fiction writing—and her new skills of script writing and film production—Vazquez will release her second book, Cherry Kill High, this spring.
Cristina L. Vazquez
Cherry Hill
(856) 354-4795
CristinaLVazquez.com
Click here to subscribe to the free digital editions of South Jersey Magazine
To read the digital edition of South Jersey Magazine, click here.
Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 10 (January 2025)
For more info on South Jersey Magazine, click here.
To subscribe to South Jersey Magazine, click here.
To advertise in South Jersey Magazine, click her
