Rafael Bernal García (1915-1972), great-grandson of the historian Joaquín García Icazbalceta, was born in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood of Mexico City on June 28; He died in Bern, Switzerland, on September 17 and although according to express wishes, his remains were left there, some time later his relatives transferred them to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico D.F.

He published poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. He also cultivated the story in the manner of Emil Ludwig and Stefan Zweig.

Although his first books placed him in anti-revolutionary prose (he criticized the feat not only for the elements of corruption that were introduced into it, but for the spoils suffered by his family), he diversified his production towards marine stories and the classic police tale , that is, of pure enigma. He is honored to have written the first black crime novel in Mexico, that is, the one with a strong social content. With Tierra de gracia, he inserted his narrative in regionalism and in the siege of the great topic of Spanish-American literature: that of civilization and barbarism. This project bears a remarkable affinity with The Lost Steps, by Alejo Carpentier.

Due to his employment in the foreign service, he did not belong to any literary group, despite the fact that Agustín Yáñez supported him to publish in the Economic Culture Fund.

Although he was a member of Synarchism for a time, he abandoned it when he saw the dark interests that moved his leaders. It has been said that he hooded the statue of Benito Juárez in the Hemicycle, but that can be denied if we look at the photo of that moment in the Encyclopedia of Mexico, in which Bernal was reading a text in front of a microphone.