“They were years of economic precariousness with a very tight belt. We drank Maggi soup with a piece of white bread. My friends brought me food from their houses.”
She finds herself tied to the Latin American literary boom. This is the time when people began reading local literature of its surroundings over European.
As Bernal completed her studies in the School of Fine Arts, she visited Bogota the first time for the First Intercol Salon of Young Artists of 1964. She won third prize. Fernando Botero won the first prize, but he his absence was noted. She met other Colombian artists, among them Leonel R. Alvarez, Julia Acuña, Gastón Betelli, Feliza Burztyn, Teresa Cuéllar, R. Castro, Carlos Cortés, Francisco Cardona, Jesús del Castillo, Mario Escovar, Chibirico, Nelson Faccinni, Leonel Góngora, Beatriz González, Alberto Gutiénez, Elisa Gómez, Iván González, Jaime Gutiérrez, Cecilia Gut, Alvaro Herrán, Jaime, Carlos Jues, Luciano Jaramillo, Lafont, Camilo Loboguerrero, Jaime Lallemand, Margarita Lozano, Gloria Martínez, Samuel Montealegre, Atala Márquez, Jorge Madriñán, Luis F. Paz, Jaime Peña, Carlos Rojas, Jorge Riveros, Mario Roldán, René Reichel, H. Ramírez, Fanny Sanín, Rosa Sanin, Graciela Salgado, Mada Victoria Salcedo, Pilar Sanín, Antonio Samudio, Bernardo Salcedo, Maruja Suárez, Miguel Angel Torres, Rosa Uribe, Jorge Valencia, Leandro Velazco, Manolo Vellojin, Silvio Vélez Calle, Rudolfo Velásquez, Eladio de Valdenebro, Nirma Zárate, David Manzur.
She was accepted as an artist by art critics such as Marta Traba, Jose Gomez Sicre and others. Although she has the acceptance of her colleagues and wins prizes with monetary rewards, she found trouble sustaining herself as an artist. What she earned she uses to buy materials like paint and not to live lavishly.