First Latina Mayor of Arizona city is from Somerton

SOMERTON, Ariz. (KYMA, KSWT, FOX 9) -A woman making history a few hours away in Tucson grew up in the desert southwest.

Tucson mayor-elect Regina Romero grew up in Somerton just a few houses down from Somerton Mayor Gerardo Anaya.

Romero graduated from Kofa High School in 1992.

That’s when Mayor Anaya said she moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona.

We took a walk down memory lane and went back to where the two grew up on County 16th Street and Lime Avenue, where the Cocopah tribal land borders city limits.

"We held a lot of our Mexican traditions. We used to have processions here, religious processions. We used to have a mass at a house. So we grew up very tight-knit," said Mayor Anaya.

Mayor Anaya said both of their families were part of the same group of agriculture workers and would travel between Somerton and Stockton, California.

He showed news 11 this picture of the two on his birthday back in 1979.

Mayor Anaya added The City of Somerton is proud of Romero and her most recent accomplishment.