Méndez was one of Mexico's most significant graphic artists in the 20th century. Orphaned at two years of age, he was raised primarily by his aunt. Méndez attended the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City and the Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre opened by Alfredo Ramos Martinez in the Chimalistac area in the south of Mexico City. In the 1920s he formed Los Estridentistas with fellow artist-activists. Politically and socially active, Méndez produced many of his finest drawings and prints in service of the Mexican Revolution and the fight against Fascism in the 1930s. Méndez was an active member of the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios and the Taller de Gráfica Popular. In 1939, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New York where he continued to associate with workers’ groups.
