Dia de los Muertos Honoree

Every year families and communities gather to remember their deceased loved ones, honor their legacies with favorite treats and memories and celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

This year that tradition will continue in San Marcos with the honoring of the late Irene K. Mendez at the Día de los Muertos 5K Run/Walk & Kids Fun Run scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 2 at Hernandez Elementary School.

Unlike what the name implies, Día de los Muertos does not celebrate death. Rather it is a celebration of the lives of friends and family who have moved on. This year the life and the legacy of Irene Mendez will be honored for her lifetime of service as a San Marcos educator.

A native of San Marcos, Irene was a proud product of San Marcos CISD schools, having attended the public schools as well as Texas State University — then Southwest Texas State.

Husband of 35 years, Ronnie Mendez, said the importance of education was instilled in her from her grandfather from a very young age.

“Her grandfather pushed all of his sons to graduate from college, all of them, and it was hard back then to go to college,” Ronnie said. “But he would always press education and Irene had it drilled into her every Sunday they’d go over there. So that instilled it in her mind.”

Irene from early on became involved with the Upward Bound program and it was what gave her the opportunity to pursue higher education, according to Ronnie.

“She was in this program called Upward Bound that came about during the LBJ administration, and she benefited through this program. And during her junior and senior year (in high school) she would go two months during summer to live at Southwest Texas University, and she would stay in a dorm just so they could get used to college life.”

Upward Bound is a federally funded educational program that serves high school students from low-income families and students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree. It was part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.

When Irene graduated from high school she enrolled at Southwest Texas State University while also working part time. Her and Ronnie were dating at the time and Ronnie already had his eyes on marrying Irene.

“She and I were just seeing each other back then — we were boyfriend girlfriend — and I cared for her so much that I asked her to marry me and she said, ‘No, I have to get my education first.’ And she said ‘no’ and ‘no’ and ‘no’ again,” Ronnie said. “Well, finally, after pestering her for two or three years, she married me. But she continued her education. Even after marriage, even after having Katina, she kept going to school and going and working part time. She would juggle those things and finally in 1976, she got a bachelor's degree. But she would take six hours there, 12 hours here, and she finally finished it, because she persisted and accomplished her goals.”

After receiving her bachelor's degree, Irene took a job at Bonham Elementary. But she still desired to further her education even more with the aspiration of becoming a public school administrator.

A SMCISD photo of Irene Mendez taken in 1992.

The then Director of Bilingual Education at Southwest Texas, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez — one of the three Rodriguezs that Rodriguez Elementary is named after — encouraged her to get her masters in bilingual education. She finished her master’s in 1983 while continuing to teach within SMCISD.

Irene became a Master Bilingual kindergarten teacher and served SMCISD for 28 years teaching at Bonham, Crockett and De Zavala Elementary Schools dedicating herself to teaching her students to strive for excellence. For this, she received numerous recognitions including De Zavala Teacher of the Year and SMCISD bilingual Teacher of the Year.

Irene was also devoted to her Catholic faith. She served many years as Eucharistic Minister, Catechism teacher and Vacation Bible School Teacher at Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church.

Irene, after a trip to Europe with Ronnie, started considering retiring from her almost 3-decade-long teaching career

“We’d just gone on a big trip, we'd gone overseas to Europe, and we came back in August. And I said ‘Irene just retire, you don't need to go back. Don't sign a contract.’ But she said, ‘Let me teach one more year, just one more year,’” Ronnie said.

But in December of 2004 Irene started having intense pain in her side.

“She was complaining about it and she never would complain,” Ronnie said. “So she went to the doctor and they said, ‘You need to have X-rays.’ So she went for an MRI and sure enough, you know, the worst was there.”

Irene was diagnosed with renal cell cancer and on Christmas Eve of 2004 she underwent surgery to remove the cancer from her kidneys. Unfortunately the cells had spread and there wasn’t much they could do for her.

According to her daughter Christina “Katina” Mendez, even through the cancer, treatments and pain, Irene kept her positive outlook on life.

“She was always positive and she never complained about being in pain,” Christina said. “I think she didn't want us to worry is what it was. She kept it all, she took everything in and kept it and she was very positive.”

The last family picture the Mendez family took together a month before Irene Mendez passed away.

Irene passed away on May 26, 2006 at the age of 56, after a year and a half of fighting cancer.

Irene, in her characteristic caring and positive nature, had planned her own funeral and even left a note for Ronnie after she passed reminding him to be good to their daughter and her surviving mother.

During her life, Irene touched many people's lives through education, through ministry and through her generosity. SMCISD went on to name Irene K. Mendez Elementary after her — something her family never expected — and many of the students she took under her wing, like student Jade Muñoz, went on to achieve their goals because of her influence.

“Jade was in her room in kindergarten and Jade would come home with her sometimes and she'd want to spend the weekend with Mrs. Mendez,” Ronnie said. “Jade went on to finish college and when she went for a job, she said, ‘I want to teach at Irene K. Mendez Elementary. And she did, she became a kindergarten teacher there and also become a teacher of the year like Irene.”

During this year’s Día de los Muertos 5K Run/Walk & Kids Fun Run on Nov. 2 at Hernandez Elementary, 333 Stagecoach Trail, Irene will be honored and remembered posthumously for her generous spirit and service to education.

“When you go through loss and the community is there for you, you realize how much the community is part of your life and how they can support you during the hardest times,” event organizer Celia Rosales said. “In the beginning, it was about trying to give back to the community. And someone mentioned, ‘You know, we should do something to remember the Hispanics in San Marcos, who paved roads and tried to advance the local community.’ And I think Irene exemplifies that.”

5k proceeds will benefit the Johnnie T. Rosales Memorial scholarship 501c3 organization which provides annual scholarship awards to selected San Marcos High School students with a portion of the proceeds also benefiting the Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos.

There will be onsite registration starting at 7 a.m., the ceremony honoring Irene Mendez will start at 7:30 a.m., the 5k run and walk will start at 8 a.m. and the kids fun run will start at 9 a.m. Online registration before the run is available.

Families and friends can sponsor a memory board for display at the race in honor of a loved one who has passed, or place their name and photo on the Day of the Dead community altar.

Participants are encouraged to wear their Day of the Dead costumes and there will be face painting available for those that show up early.

For general inquiries email diadelosmuertos5k@gmail.com or follow them on Facebook.