 He afterwards began attending university in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where in 1794 obtained his doctorate degree in both canonical rights and civil rights, becoming a doctor utriusque juris (Doctor of Canon and Civil Law).After obtaining his doctorate, Mendoza returned to Venezuela in his early twenties to begin working in his hometown.He first worked in the law office of Antonio Nicolás Briceño in Trujillo, and in the city of Mérida in 1975 he practiced law with Juan Marimón y Henríquez e Hipólito Elías González.