Linda Chavez (1947-)

Linda Chavez (1947-)

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Linda Chavez is an accomplished writer and scholar on the subject of human rights and education. She has a syndicated column, which appears all over the country, and has been a regular contributor to such newspapers as Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, The New Republic, Commentary, and Reader's Digest. She also appears regularly as commentator on shows like "Nightline," "The McLaughlin Group," "CNN & Co.," "Equal Time," and "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer."

She has held several political positions. In the 1980s she served as head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights where she concerned many civil rights activists by calling for the end of affirmative action, bilingual voting ballots, bilingual education and other civil rights laws. Today, she has extended her stance by actively campaigning against these policies and taking part in many think tanks and organizations with the same concern. With the support of her own organization, Center for Equal Opportunity, she has backed such initiatives as ending bilingual education in various states (with Unz) and "Defend Scouting".

Her family's Spanish routes trace back to New Mexico in the 1600s, however she did not grow up speaking Spanish and is not fluent. Her father was a World War II hero of Spanish descent and her mother was English-Irish. Addressing the way many people view her conservative views and identity:

"I've always used Chavez professionally. It's, in part, because of my, I think, attachment to my father. It's a name I like. I'm very proud of my heritage and always have been. And it's one of the things I think people misunderstand. I'm an assimilationist. I believe in assimilation. I think that assimilation is the only model that works in a society as diverse as ours, that if each and every group keeps its primary attachment to the ethnic group or the racial group ... that it's divisive. Having said that, though, one of the unique characteristics about American assimilation is that we do feel that we have some connection to the past. I mean, we eat different foods; we have different kinds of traditions in our homes and celebrations. And I think that so long as the ethnic part is private, so long as public funds are not being used to promote it that there's nothing wrong with it and it, in fact, can make a richer nation and make a richer life. It's when the public gets involved and when we begin expending public money to promote attachment to ethnicity or race that I have a problem."
Linda Chavez

She has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor in the Bush Administration. Out of all the Hispanic nominees, she is the most active in the arena of conservative politics.

1947 - Born in Albuquerque, N.M
1956 - Moved to Denver, Colorado at age 9
1970 - B.A. from the University of Colorado, degree in English literature
1970s - graduate study at University of California at Los Angeles
1972-74 - worked on Capitol Hill
1974-75 - lobbyist for National Education Association
1977-83 - editor for American Federation of Teachers journal, publishing articles on "traditional values" in education
1983-85 - U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under Reagan. Urged for the end of several civil rights programs
1985 - Director of Public Liaison for Ronald Reagan; highest ranking woman in the Reagan Administration
1986 - Won the GOP nomination to compete for a Senatorial seat in Maryland. She lost the election.
1987-88 - president of U.S. English, promoting English as official language; she left when an anti-Hispanic memo emerged from the founder
1989-94 - fellow at Manhattan Institute
1991 - published her book, "Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation"
1992 to 1996 - U.S. expert on the United Nations Subcommission on Human Rights
1995 to present - founder and president of Center for Equal Opportunity, an organization that focuses on issues related to race, ethnicity, assimilation, and public policy.
2000 - served on the Minnesota committee: Coalition to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
2000 - Nominated to be Secretary of Labor in the Bush Administration

Board Positions

American Civil Rights Union
ACRU Policy Board member Linda Chavez said, "For too long, the civil rights establishment has insisted that equal opportunity has required racial preferences, but a new breed of civil rights groups has risen up to challenge this notion."
ABM Industries
Campaign for a Color-Blind America
Director; The Board of Directors includes nationally prominent civil rights activists, social scientists and legal scholars. It is the goal of the organization to challenge race-based public policies and educate the public about the injustices of racial preferences.
Center of the American Experiment
Board of Advisors; Center of the American Experiment is a nonpartisan, tax-exempt public policy and educational institution, which brings conservative and alternative ideas to bear on the hardest problems facing Minnesota and the nation.
Center for Equal Opportunity
Founder, President; An organization that focuses on issues related to race, ethnicity, assimilation, and public policy.

She serves on other non-profit groups and committees as well.

Elsewhere on the Web:

Linda Chavez
Links to her articles and interviews.
Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation
In this study, the author argues that the Hispanic community in America must reconsider the concept of assimilation. In chapters 1 and 2, Chavez examines "how public policy in the form of two federal laws, the Bilingual Education Act and the Voting Rights Act, encouraged Hispanics to reject assimilation. . . . Chapter 3 describes how the organizations involved in promoting these policies evolved and how groups outside the Hispanic community influenced the process. Chapter 4 considers the backlash that developed as Hispanic leaders continued to push for special treatment, including protected language rights for Hispanics. The second half of the book deals with the present condition of Hispanics living in the United States."
United States Department of Labor
Official site of the Department of Labor.
Language Rights
Articles, resources, and organizations dedicated to fighting or promoting the "English Only" laws that would make English the official language, or make other languages illegal.