Paulino Bernal

Paulino Bernal (born June 22, 1939) is an accordion player and Christian evangelist. He was a member of the Tejano Tex-Mex group Conjunto Bernal.

In 1972, Paulino converted from the apostolic Christian denomination of Catholicism to Evangelical Protestantism and founded Bernal Christian Records in order to evangelize his Protestant Christian beliefs. Through his La Nuevo Cristiana ministry, Bernal currently owns and operates more than a dozen Spanish Language religious radio stations located in Texas carrying a satellite-fed programming schedule. In 2008 Paulino Bernal released a new CD of polkas produced by Grammy-winning producer Armando Lichtenberger Jr., "El Maestro Del Acordeon Y Sus Polkas" on Urbana Records and received his first Grammy Nomination for Best Polka Album for the 51st Annual Grammys.

Chicanos (Mexican-Americans) have always been prolific music makers. They have been the music trendsetters among Mexicans in the Southwest throughout most of the 20th century. In fact, beginning in the 1930s, the Texas-Mexicans created the two most powerful regional styles ever to emerge among Mexicans anywhere – orquesta and conjunto.

The best of the conjuntos is, beyond a doubt, El Conjunto Bernal. Described by connoisseurs of conjunto music as "the only one of its kind" and "twenty years ahead of its time" El Conjunto Bernal is well known for its tremendous range of innovations. Its musical experiments spanned the gamut of conjunto, from the traditional polka to Latin music such as the bolero, cha cha cha, and even American rock and roll. El Conjunto Bernal owed much of its originality and meteoric rise to fame to the genius of its founder, Paulino Bernal.

Paulino Bernal was born June 22, 1939, in Raymondville, Texas. Reared in the grinding poverty that was experienced by most Chicanos of his generation, Paulino was forced to give up schooling when he was in the seventh grade. An accomplished accordionist by that time, he left school "to try and earn money and get us out of the poverty in which we found ourselves." Bernal’s mother was a divorcee, and early on she moved to Kingsville, Texas, where Paulino, his older brother Eloy, the younger Luis, and three sisters were all forced to pick cotton, cucumbers, and other crops to help support the family. One day a man came by the house selling a guitar, and Mrs. Bernal "with great sacrifice," bought it for the boys. Paulino soon learned enough to play the cantinas with an elderly accordionist, where he picked up tips to help buy food for the Bernal family. But Paulino's future lay with the accordion. He remembers hearing the best accordionists of the late 1940s and early 1950s on the radio – Narciso Martinez, Valerio Longoria, Tony De La Rosa – all of whom were recording for the largest Mexican-American company at the time, Ideal Records. Paulino dreamed of joining their ranks, and when a friend of his was given an accordion as a gift, it was Paulino who spent the most time practising on it. Shortly afterwards, during a trip to visit his father in Rio Grande Valley, Eloy was given a bajo sexto by him and the Bernal’s were soon on track toward their future.

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