U.S. English Chief: Controversy Spoken Here

Linda Chavez is cool, very cool, considering the brutal Washington summer and the firestorm that has followed her appointment to head U.S. English, a group that wants to make English the nation’s official language.

An island of calm amid the din of lunchtime chatter at a downtown restaurant, she speaks with precision, rarely gesturing. Her body does not talk; it is only her well-modulated voice you hear.

Yes, she knows that many Latino activists call U.S. English the enemy. And yes, it is true that she is a Latina. But no, she does not believe she is somehow a traitor to the Latino cause.

Crisp in a white cotton blouse, she serenely dissects the controversy surrounding her.

“I’ve dealt with it in the past,” she said. “I know what my feelings are about my own background and my culture. I think the worst thing that could happen to the Hispanic population, particularly immigrants, is for them to remain unable to function in English, because that dooms you to second-class citizenship.”

With the same smooth delivery, Chavez, 40, crafted a national reputation a few years ago as staff director of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Appointed by President Reagan in 1983, she set the commission on a conservative course, opposing quotas as a remedy for racial and sex discrimination and engaging liberal commissioner Mary Frances Berry in rancorous verbal duels.

She said Berry, a fiery orator, once called her a “honey-tongued viper. I looked for weeks for a coffee mug with ‘honey’ on the outside so I could sip out of it at commission meetings.”

Chavez never found the mug, but along with Chairman Clarence Pendleton she so dramatically shifted the commission’s focus that even some liberals demanded that it be abolished. By the time she left the post in 1985 to become public liaison director at the White House, the once-influential advisory group had been reduced to a bickering, little-noticed body whose budget had been slashed by Congress.

Chavez, a Democrat-turned Republican, ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland last year and, typically, stirred up controversy by describing her opponent, then-Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), as “anti-male” and “a San Francisco-style” Democrat--labels that critics suggested were veiled references to homosexuality. Since then she has written articles and made occasional appearances as a television commentator.

Through it all, the self-described “neo-conservative” and believer in “individual responsibility” has repeatedly grabbed headlines. Now, officials at U.S. English are hoping she can lead the group to a higher profile and an improved image--especially among Latinos.

“The most valuable thing she will lend to this organization is increased visibility,” said Steve Workings, director of government affairs. “She is a lady who has tackled some controversial issues. I’m sure she will do the same here.” U.S. English claims almost 300,000 members nationwide, as well as much of the credit for getting 13 states--including California--to make English their official language. Succeeding Gerda Bikales, U.S. English’s executive director, Chavez begins work Aug. 17 with a $70,000-a-year salary and a newly created title: president.

Articulate, hard-working and savvy in the world of Washington lobbying, Chavez is expected to zealously join the organization’s efforts to enact legislation to make English the nation’s official language. She seems to enjoy the prospect of combat. “I guess it’s part of my nature,” she said serenely. “Controversy doesn’t bother me.”

At the same time, she realizes that controversy alone is useless.

Thus, she is promoting U.S. English’s new $650,000 program--launched in Los Angeles--to teach English to those who do not speak it as a first language.

Mario Hernandez, who has a grant from U.S. English to teach on cable television in Los Angeles, empathizes with Chavez. He says other Latinos ask him: “What are you doing playing with the devil?”

An unfazed Hernandez says: “Tell her she has a partner back here in Los Angeles. We are going to give hell to these kooks.”

Chavez says the new English program will help portray U.S. English as “an organization that stands for something,” dispelling its image as “simply an organization that opposes immigration and other languages.”

‘Two-Pronged Approach’

In what she calls a “two-pronged approach,” U.S. English will help people learn English so they will be able to function in a world in which driver’s license tests and ballots would be printed in English only.

“The quicker we can move to get people functioning in English, the better off we are,” Chavez said.

Even her Latino critics do not disagree with this assessment, but they distrust both U.S. English and Chavez as allies.

Calling U.S. English “xenophobic, with alarmist appeals,” Joseph M. Trevino, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, says hiring Chavez was a “desperate” act. “If she wants to be the Hispanic link, she’s going to have to tap other sources.”

Similarly, Martha Jimenez, Washington-based legislative attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, says U.S. English has “racist overtones” and that Chavez “has a history of not being sensitive” to minorities.

Chavez brushes aside the criticism, citing the “difference of opinion between organizational leaders and the communities they purport to represent.”

Nevertheless, because the attacks are so strong, she finds herself having to defend not only U.S. English, but her own attitudes toward Latinos.

“I grew up very proud of my ethnicity,” Chavez says of her childhood in Albuquerque and Denver.

The daughter of a Latino father and a mother of British-Irish ancestry, she says she has “very little identification with my mother’s background. I always thought of myself as Latina despite the fact that I didn’t speak Spanish.” A one-time college English instructor, she has studied Spanish and may do so again, she says.

“I do view myself first as an American, having in many ways achieved the American dream,” she says. “I came from a relatively poor background . . . yet I was able to achieve. English played a very important role.”

Chavez says maintaining ethnic culture is fine but the government shouldn’t pay for it. “It’s always been my view that the only way to maintain culture is through private action,” she says, citing publication of newspapers by Italians, Germans and Jews in America.

Chavez characteristically challenges convention and coolly anticipates victory. “Some people will make up their minds before I’ve spoken a word,” she says, sipping the last of her coffee. “But I don’t think most people are like that. Time will tell whether or not I’m successful.”