Background
Mendez grew up in the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development.
Mendez grew up in the Williamsburg Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development.
She is the child of Puerto Rican parents, and attended New York City public schools through high school. She graduated from New York University and Rutgers School of Law—Newark.
She is a Democrat. The district includes all or parts of Chelsea, the East Village, the Flatiron District, Gramercy, Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Midtown, Murray Hill, NoHo, and Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. Her working and volunteer life has predominantly focused on community service. She began as a tenant organizer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
She then worked on citywide housing issues as a housing specialist at the Parodneck Foundation.
In 1995, Mendez graduated from law school and worked as an IOLA Legal Services Fellow at Brooklyn Legal Services. Prior to her election to the Council, Mendez was the Democratic District Leader for her community for four terms.
In the heavily Democratic district the primary victory was considered tantamount to election. After a landslide victory in the general election in November 2005, Mendez took office as the 2nd district"s Councilwoman in January 2006.
She was re-elected in 2009 and 2013.
As a legal staff worker she became a member of the United Auto Workers (United Auto Workers).