YAKIMA — The city of Yakima, which has been embroiled in a voting rights lawsuit brought by the ACLU, has its first Hispanic mayor.
The Yakima City Council on Tuesday night unanimously elected Avina Gutierrez as mayor, a largely ceremonial post in the central Washington city of 90,000 residents.
Gutierrez, 36, was among the first three Latinas ever elected to the city council last November, after a federal judge ruled that Hispanic-majority districts must be created.
The Yakima Herald-Republic says Yakima is about 40 percent Hispanic.
Gutierrez grew up in Yakima and graduated from Davis High School before attending the University of Texas at El Paso. She owns a business consulting firm.
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