[1] Tomasa Yarhui was born in the Quechua community Manca Jallpa, Chuquisaca Department on 7 March 1968.
[2] In 1976, she left the region to study at a school in Sucre, where she said she suffered discrimination "for being a campesina girl" – for her dress and for her economic condition.
In 1996, she won the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) political award.
[5] Yarhui joined politics in the Free Bolivia Movement (MBL), and in 1999 she was the first indigenous woman municipal councilor of Sucre.
She was then elected alternate senator of the Social Democratic Power political front (Podemos) for Chuquisaca for the 2006–2010 term.