If there a cause to be won or a fight to be fought, it seems Willie Velasquez was there.

Groups focusing on registering voters ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline for the March Primary have said their efforts have taken on a greater significance.

Before the late Willie Velasquez took up the fight for voting rights, “Latinos would go out to vote and vote in large numbers, but their candidates would continually lose,” Velasquez’s longtime friend, Rolando Rios, told KSAT.