RauI was born in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, where he studied botany as an undergraduate. Before drawing plants he was surveying and drawing cave, land and crop irrigation maps. He began drawing plants to illustrate one of his early papers on prickly pears and chollas of northern Mexico.

For the last 12 years he has worked as a curator and research botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ. As a collaborator for the Vascular Plants of Arizona project, he wrote and illustrated various family treatments and drew plants for other botanists. As a botanist, he believes that drawing the plants allows one to “see” and discover characteristics that may be overlooked when simply writing the descriptions.