Javier Mendez, 53, has owned and operated Mendez Custom Moto outside Austin, Texas, for 16 years, and he hasn’t accepted a social invitation he didn’t have to in 12. His only personality flaw, if you ask his 22-year-old apprentice Javi Jr. (no relation), is that he holds a grudge so long it’s got its own parking spot behind his shop, right next to the half-restored 1972 Honda CB750 he’s been picking at for two years. The grudge dates back to 2011, when his business partner and ex-wife’s cousin embezzled $80,000 from the shop’s operating fund and skipped town, leaving Javier to work 60-hour weeks for three straight years just to keep the lights on. He’d avoided every family, community, and local small business event since, terrified he’d run into the guy, or anyone who’d defend him.
The only reason he’s at the annual Hill Country Chili Cookoff on that crisp October Saturday is Javi Jr. begged him to enter their brisket and hatch green chili recipe, promising he’d man the booth 90% of the time. Javier showed up an hour late, wearing oil-stained straight-leg jeans, scuffed work boots, and a faded Willie Nelson tee, still flecked with metal shavings from a transmission he’d rebuilt that morning. He scrubbed his hands twice before he left the shop, but there’s still a faint line of black grease under the edge of his thumbnail. He stands off to the side of the booth, sipping a cold Shiner Bock, half listening to people rave about the chili, half scanning the crowd for any face he associates with 2011.