Raul Cortes was born in the town of San Jose de Gracia, Jalisco, to devoutly Catholic parents Jose and Alta Gracia. Raul’s family had been working in the United States since 1926, and his father Jose traveled to the U.S. regularly for work. But his parents were insistent upon raising the children in San Jose de Gracia, Jalisco, which they deemed a more Catholic environment.
Raul came from a family of musicians, and as a child he learned to read music and became an accomplished choirboy. When he entered the seminary in Guadalajara at age 13, his teachers recognized his musical aptitude. They sent him to study at the conservatory of music and assigned him to help teach sacred music classes at the seminary.
Raul was ordained at the age of 27 in 1962, and juggled his first parish assignment with teaching music at the seminary. He learned to ride horses so that he could minister to the people in surrounding towns. (He once rode 14 hours to hear the confession of a dying man.) Over the following 20 years, he earned a reputation and was beloved by the people. Wherever he was assigned, he would be among them, listening to their problems, helping however he could, and drawing them into the life of the Church, often through the use of music and sports. At one assignment, he built two sports stadiums, organized 32 teams, and brought national soccer stars to the parish regularly.
Fr. Raul was granted permission by his bishop to obtain a green card to visit his family, who had emigrated to the U.S. Though he was pastor of his own parish in Mexico, after ten years Fr. Raul decided to leave it behind to minister to his people on the other side of the border.
In 1981, Raul was assigned to Our Lady of the Valley in Canoga Park. He said the first Spanish masses in the Valley, which drew crowds of several thousand. When he was transferred to St. Linus in Norwalk, they followed him. He improved his English skills, and the Filipino community there embraced him as well.
In 1994, Raul was assigned to St. Catherine of Siena, where he has served ever since. In 1998, he renovated some property he inherited into a non-profit music school for children who otherwise couldn’t afford music lessons. (Music “creates clean hearts,” he likes to say.) Fr. Raul currently teaches music at St. Catherine of Siena School, where he is at the center of an effort to help make Catholic education available to all children in the community, regardless of economic status.
