At NAHJ Diana ‘DeeDee’ Fuentes altar, friends and colleagues share stories of the legendary journalist

Colorful calavera skulls surrounded by red and yellow flowers bookended a platform with the photo of Diana Fuentes, better known as “DeeDee,” on the second floor of a New Orleans convention center.

As conference attendees passed by, some stopped to study her photo. Some paused to take photos, capturing the memory. Others stopped to quietly greet her.

The altar, a memorial to her and other journalists who died in the last year, provided a reminder to friends and former colleagues of the legendary Latina journalist’s legacy and absence at this year’s National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference. Fuentes died on March 20. She was 67.

Fuentes worked in multiple newsrooms throughout her 35-year journalism career, including the Laredo Morning Times and the San Antonio Express-News. She retired in 2021 from journalism, but became the first Latina executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors later that year. She was inducted into the NAHJ Hall of Fame in 2022.

Nora López, who first met Fuentes in the 1980s as a reporter for the Express-News, especially felt Fuentes’ absence. López was supposed to room with Fuentes this year.

She said Fuentes had a habit of being late. The two friends were scheduled to meet on the day Fuentes died. López said she knew something was wrong when Fuentes didn’t message her about running late.

This year, López wore a red wristband reading “Diana ‘DeeDee’ Fuentes,” that were made for her funeral in Del Rio, Texas. Throughout the conference, she handed them out to those who knew her.

López, on the brink of tears, said Fuentes represented the best of journalists and people. Once a month, the duo would go to a pancake breakfast fundraiser. Fuentes would donate — and not just be $10 or $12.

“She would sign checks worth hundreds of dollars,” López said. “She just wanted to share, and she wanted everybody to be successful at what they were trying to do.”

Her colleagues and friends said Fuentes worked tirelessly, championing free press rights, assisting the next generation of journalists and pushing for more newsroom diversity.

“She was just such a good leader, a good news manager, a damn good journalist,” said Laura Garcia, who worked with Fuentes at the Express-News and other newsrooms throughout her career. “She was a model for all of us.”

Rocky Garza Jr. and José Arredondo, both mentees of Fuentes, stopped to take photos of the altar and shared stories.

“She would edit the hell out of you,” Garza Jr. said. “She was hard on you. But when she was hard on you, she meant it for love.”

Arredondo said he saved her emails. He agreed she was a tough editor. But he would never forget one last note he received, he said.

“Hey, I have no questions,” Fuentes wrote. “This is great copy.'”

Arredondo said he last saw Fuentes at the 2025 NAHJ conference in Chicago. Surrounded by dozens of colleagues from San Antonio, the two climbed on stage at a karaoke bar to sing one of Fuentes’s favorite songs, “Wooly Bully,” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Eventually, Fuentes and Arredondo had the whole bar singing.

Francisco Vara-Orta, who has known Fuentes for 23 years and worked alongside her in three different jobs, couldn’t make it to this year’s NAHJ conference. But his colleagues shared photos of the altar from afar, he said.

Vara-Orta, who took over as interim director of IRE after she died, said she disarmed people with her humility.

“She had the intelligence and the work ethic and the conviction to do really great journalism and convince people from her sources to those that she worked with to trust he,” he said. At the beginning of his career, she entrusted him and other young reporters with the responsibility of being a journalist, he said.

The two first met when Vara-Orta interned under Fuentes in at the Morning Times in Laredo. They worked together again at the Express-News before they reunited at IRE.

Vara-Orta said she was also the most ethical person he ever met. She taught him to avoid making assumptions about people or their situations. Whenever he felt overwhelmed, she reminded him they would find a way through.

The lessons Fuentes passed on are ones Vara-Orta said he still tries to carry into his own leadership.

Vara-Orta, who stands at 6 feet 3 inches, said Fuentes was a foot shorter than him.

“But I looked up to her,” Vara-Orta said. “And I still do.”

James Gordon is a senior at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. James is the editor in chief for the student publication, The Signpost. He aspires to cover news in and around the greater Salt Lake City metro area. James can be contacted at jeg.jamesgordon [at} gmail [dot] com.