At 23, José Gurrola is the youngest mayor of Arvin, a town of about 20,000 at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley. The community faces economic and environmental challenges, including drinking water that contains unsafe levels of arsenic and the newly regulated carcinogen 1,2,3-TCP.
Gurrola shares what inspired him to get into politics at the age of 19 and why the fight for clean drinking water is central to the town’s future.