Profile: Linda Chavez

— -- Linda Chavez has been one of the most powerful Hispanic American voices in politics — and one of the most controversial.

During the Reagan administration she was the civil rights administrator and an outspoken critic of affirmative action and Spanish language classes.

A former Democrat and union member, Chavez’s tenure asdirector of the commission — which advises the president andCongress — alienated liberals in Congress and civil rights groupsby reversing established agency positions.

But, it made her a darling of conservatives. Under herleadership, for example, the commission opposed the use of quotasto help women and minorities make up for past discrimination.

“Affirmative action creates problems with standards andincreases racial friction,” Chavez, the product of a father withroots in Spain and a mother whose ancestors crossed over fromEngland and Ireland, told USA Today in 1995. “And it’s simply not just.

She was an adviser to Ron K. Unz, the Silicon Valley millionaire who financially backed Proposition 227, the successful California ballot initiative that requires the repeal of bilingual education in California.

After a failed 1986 Senate campaign in Maryland, she became the president of U.S. English, a private non-profit organization lobbying to make English the official national language. In late 1988 she resigned from U.S. English; her reasoning was that she could not work with its founder John Tanton, who, in Chavez’s estimation, had demonstrated an “anti-Hispanic” and “anti-Catholic” bias.

Opposition From Labor

She believes minority groups can succeed without special help from the government. As labor secretary, Chavez says she will“vigorously enforce” regulations to guarantee that federalcontractors do not discriminate. And it’s that pledge, from anoutspoken opponent of affirmative action, that alarms many of thosewho recall her stormy tenure as a former head of the U.S.Commission on Civil Rights.