Born and raised in Mérida, Yucatán, México, Rafael showed from an early age his desire to be a storyteller, scribbling on pieces of paper short stories that he would share with friends and family. At age ten, he knew his place to tell these stories was at the movies. He went on to study communication, specializing in film, at Anáhuac Mayab University. While attending university, he took his first dive into screenwriting in 2015 by enrolling on a summer course at the University of New Mexico, where he wrote and directed his very first short film. After that he went on to participate in multiple projects both inside and outside his studies, raging from short films, to music videos, vlogs, and ads, in which he gained experience in multiple areas of filmmaking, from writing, directing, editing, producing, boom operating, assistant director, production assistant, and others. During his last year of his studies, in 2018, he enrolled in an intensive course at Vancouver Film School where he would eventually attend the writing program.

After graduating he worked as a freelance editor and moved in between jobs unrelated to filmmaking. From 2020 to 2021 he was hired as editor and video producer at Taktic, a real estate company, where he further developed his skills as an editor. In 2022 he went back to Vancouver Film School and studied the one year writing program, and taking the video game stream. After graduating, he wrote, directed, and edited “IMPOSTER,” a neo-noir horror short film, currently in its festival run.