Fr Mena was born on 17 March 1927 in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents. He made his novitiate in Mohernando, where he made his first religious vows on August 16, 1948. In 1953, he began his theological studies in Carabanchel, where he was ordained a priest on June 23, 1957. For two years he was a professor of French and during this period he developed his innate artistic qualities with photography and cinematography.
Since 1965 he was destined for the "Don Bosco" house of "Calle Alcalá, 164", home to the Salesian Bulletin, the CCS Publishing House, the Catechetical Center and the Youth Ministry Center. His work was extremely intense and of extraordinary quality. He left a rich graphic heritage illustrating the history of the Salesian Congregation in Spain.
Fr Mena was certainly a great, friendly and welcoming person, a true professional, a tireless worker, a masterful perfectionist who always aspired to perfection, an enemy of mediocrity and superficiality. But, above all, he was a good religious, with a profound and well demonstrated Salesian spirit, a lover of Don Bosco and of the Salesian Congregation. As a priest, he was faithful to his vocation from the details of the liturgy, always well made in conformity with the norms, up to his apostolic zeal, seeking in everyone the good of their souls.
