Menéndez belonged to the Committed Generation alongside authors such as Manlio Argueta, Ítalo López Vallecillos and Roque Dalton.

He has been writing for the magazine El Diario de Hoy since 1950 and was a member of its editorial board from 1953.

In addition, in 1956 he founded the first news program on Salvadorian television, Telediario salvadoreño.

He was arrested in 1953 for an alleged conspiracy against Oscar Osorio's regime, on the other hand, he worked as a cultural attaché in Mexico and was director of the National Theater.

He had his breakthrough as a writer with the play Luz negra, with which he won first prize at the Juegos Florales Hispanoamericanos Conmemorativos de Quezaltenango in Guatemala in 1965.