Mendoza-Nava was born in
La Paz,
Bolivia. He studied at
The Juilliard School and
Madrid Royal Conservatory, the
Sorbonne, and with
Nadia Boulanger. He won the Madrid Conservatory's First Prize in 1950, completing the five-year program in a year's time. Eventually, he was on the staff of
Walt Disney Studios and his works were recorded by
MGM Records. Much of his music is inspired by the
pentatonic music of the
Andes. In Hollywood, he also had several credits as a
sound editor. He died in
Los Angeles, California, on May 31, 2005. Mendoza-Nava's grandson, Nic Mendoza (born April 4, 1989), is a music and multimedia producer. Nic is the founder of his production entity, Uprise LLC, and co-founder of a production company and record imprint, Encore Endeavor One (EE1). Nic is the Producer of Up, Up & Away! a musical fable, starring Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr. and The Next Dimension, and continues to work with the duo on their forthcoming project with BMG. ==Selected filmography==