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In True Face

Vigil Discussion Storytelling

What’s Happening?

Spy Museum board member and former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Hiestand Mendez is finally sharing her personal story of what it was really like to be a female spy at the height of the Cold War. Her new book In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. 

Join us for a conversation with Mendez led by bestselling author Liza Mundy. Mundy is uniquely positioned to interview Mendez, who she featured in her latest book The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA. They’ll discuss Mendez’s incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it. How did a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for the CIA as a convenience to her husband, discover her own talent for espionage? How did she rise in a world where she was often underestimated and occasionally undermined? Mendez will share tales of her life undercover, and how she climbed to the pinnacle of disguise work in the CIA’s Office of Technical Service. Don’t miss this inside story from a woman who has witnessed history from the shadows and knows just how much light to shed on her covert past.

In True Face and The Sisterhood will be available for sale and signing after the conversation.

Spy Museum board member and former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Hiestand Mendez is finally sharing her personal story of what it was really like to be a female spy at the height of the Cold War. Her new book In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. 

Join us for a conversation with Mendez led by bestselling author Liza Mundy. Mundy is uniquely positioned to interview Mendez, who she featured in her latest book The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA. They’ll discuss Mendez’s incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it. How did a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for the CIA as a convenience to her husband, discover her own talent for espionage? How did she rise in a world where she was often underestimated and occasionally undermined? Mendez will share tales of her life undercover, and how she climbed to the pinnacle of disguise work in the CIA’s Office of Technical Service. Don’t miss this inside story from a woman who has witnessed history from the shadows and knows just how much light to shed on her covert past.

In True Face and The Sisterhood will be available for sale and signing after the conversation.

More about International Spy Museum
The International Spy Museum (SPY) is an independent nonprofit museum which documents the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage. It holds the largest collection of international espionage artifacts on public display. The Museum opened in 2002 in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, DC, and relocated to a new, expanded building with all-new exhibitions at L'Enfant Plaza in 2019.
When & Where
Mar 5, 2024, 6:30pm to 8:00pm Timezone: EST
Free


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