CPA firm counts on family

Behind the filing cabinets, copiers and office desks of Raul Hernandez and Company, P.C., Certified Public Accountants, is a backroom containing toys, a TV and an assortment of children’s DVDs.
“Our kids and grandkids literally grew up in this accounting business,” owner Raul Hernandez, 61, said. “Some of them actually first learned to walk here at the office.” 
What began as one man working from his car is now an established family-operated business located on the southside of Corpus Christi. Today, Hernandez’s firm prepares audits for courts, city government and local businesses as well as tax returns for clients from across Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas.
His business partners include his son, Raul “Rudy” Hernandez Jr., who graduated from Texas A&M University with a master’s in accounting, and his daughter-in-law, Amy Hernandez, a CPA who also comes from a family of accountants.
“I took a break from school and was waitressing when I asked my co-worker (and future husband) Rudy Hernandez what his dad did for a living, and he said, ‘I’m not sure, but it starts with three letters, C-P-A.’ I guess it was meant to be,” said Amy Hernandez, who left her restaurant job to work for Rudy’s father while going to school.
For Rudy, the accounting industry was not his first choice, but stressful work conditions as a head cook in a restaurant led him to the family firm. 
“I asked my dad if he needed help,” Rudy said. “My dad put me on to bookkeeping, and I wound up working together with Amy, who I ended up marrying later on.”
Rounding out the family workforce, matriarch Sylvia Hernandez serves as office manager and bookkeeper, while the couple’s granddaughters, Gabrielle and Adriana Delos Santos, work part time as administrative assistants. Family friend Joan Rigoni works for the company remotely.
The road to accounting started with a dust of wind, married student housing and a short registration line at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.  
“One day, after working hard to sweep the debris from inside a house, a gust of wind suddenly blew all the dust back inside, and I was so angry and frustrated,” Raul Hernandez said. “It was a wakeup call, and I realized I needed to do something more with my life.”
When he learned about an opportunity for married couples to live rent-free while attending school in Kingsville, he asked girlfriend, Sylvia, to marry him. Sylvia fondly remembers that proposal from 40 years ago.
“We were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, and, basically, Raul told me, ‘We have to get married over the weekend so we can live for free and I can go to college,’” she recalled with a laugh. “That was our romantic proposal story.”
Uncertain of his major as he lined up for registration, Raul decided to get in the shortest queue: the one to the School of Business. 
“So I jokingly tell my family that’s how I ended up in the accounting field,” he said. “But I believe that was God’s path for me.”
In Kingsville, the family scrimped and saved for three years. 
“Although we owned a car, we didn’t have enough money for gas, so I would walk to school,” Raul said. “While students would have fun during Spring Break, I would work part time at Channel 16 while going to school.”
His focus and discipline finally paid off when he graduated with a business degree in 1979. After working for firms in Houston and then Alice, he found his way back to Corpus Christi, where he started his own business marketing his services to courts and local businesses until he gradually built his own clientele.
Though the January-to-April-tax-refund season tends to be the busiest time of the year, government and business audits keep the company going year-round. The drive to work hard does not get in the way of building a strong family. For the Hernandez family, holidays and weekends are reserved for quality time and family vacations.
“An important thing to note is we don’t ‘talk shop’ outside of the work place,” Raul said. “During our family trip to Disney World, Amy started talking about work, and I had to tell her to ‘button it up,’” he said laughing.
“We’ve never had to work on weekends except for a few rare occasions,” Amy said. “But whenever we are at work, we are committed to delivering accurate quality reports on time.”
One key person missing from the Hernandez family business is daughter Jennifer Delos Santos, who passed away in 2011 from an aneurysm.
“Though accounting was not necessarily her calling, my daughter was there with us from the beginning, helping run the family business for so many years,” Raul said. “When she died, it left such a void in our hearts.”
As a firm believer in organ donation, Raul, who gave a kidney to his brother, requested their daughter’s organs be donated to those in need.
“At least her life will have enabled others to have a second chance,” he said. “The heart was able to save a grandmother, and both kidneys went to two young ladies.”
Though devastated by this tragedy, the family has been able to pick up the pieces and allow their daughter’s memory to serve as an inspiration, especially for Jennifer’s own two daughters, Gabrielle Delos Santos, 19 and Adriana, 18, who now work in their mother’s place. Though both girls grew up in the office, they work part time while attending school. One wants to be a dental hygienist. 
For Raul, the accounting firm is more than a place of work; it’s a legacy he has built for his family.
“Looking back, I tell my family now I understand the reason why I could never land a job at the local refineries or the post office. My destiny lay here,” he said. “Whether or not my family will choose to continue the business when I’m long gone, or whether they want to pursue accounting or another field, at least I’ll know I have created a place where they can strengthen their skills or serve as a stepping stone for pursuing their own dreams and aspirations.”

Raul Hernandez and Company, P.C., is located at 5422 Holly Road in Corpus Christi. Call (361) 980-0428 or email ralhern@sbcglobal.net for more information.