Mr. Mendez was born and raised in the San Marcos area, where he attended the "Mexican school". He reminisced on the pervasive discrimination against Mexican Americans during his youth. His studies at Texas State were interrupted by the draft during the Korean War years. Mr. Mendez was a member of a political alliance between Mexican Americans, liberal Anglos and African Americans in San Marcos; this coalition, later called Hays County Independent Party, helped elect some of the first minority public officials in the city. Mr. Mendez was the first Mexican American trustee in the San Marcos school board; during his tenure, he pushed for the integration of the local schools. In the mid 1970s, a cross was burned in his front lawn; the act was attributed to the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Mendez also reminisced on a major boycott of the San Marcos schools in 1972.