ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a number of jurisdictions in the Central Valley, the largest of which is just over 30,000 persons. The City had elected its representatives on an at-large basis ever since its incorporation in 1906. In May of 1992, in an effort to compromise the issue and save costs of litigation, the Dinuba City Council adopted a two-district system combined with a three-member at-large arrangement: the two districts were drawn to be overwhelmingly Latino in voter registration. The contest in Dinuba quickly reverberated through other Central Valley communities. The shadow of the Dinuba cases and the threat posed by Joaquin Avila and a Latino activist named Ben Benevides, caught the attention of the Mayor of Visalia, Peter Carey. Tulare District Hospital, located in Tulare County just south of Fresno County, held discussions with this writer as early as the spring of 1992.
