Linda Chavez

Linda Lou Chavez is an American author, commentator, and radio talk show host. She is also a Fox News analyst, Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, has a syndicated column that appears in newspapers nationwide each week, and sits on the board of directors of two Fortune 1000 companies Pilgrims Pride and ABM Industries. Chavez was the highestranking woman in President Ronald Reagans White House, and was the first Latina ever nominated to the United States Cabinet, when President George W. Bush nominated her Secretary of Labor. She withdrew from consideration for the position when the media published allegations that she had employed an illegal immigrant a decade earlier. In 2000, Chavez was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

Chavez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of Velma Lucy and Rudolfo Enrique Chavez, a tail gunner in World War II who worked as a house painter. She is of Neomexicana descent on her fathers side. Her father was descended from immigrants to New Spain from Spain in the 17th century his family had lived in the New Mexico area for several hundred years, his ancestor Diego de Montoya was the leader of an encomienda, a protectorate of Puebloan peoples in Pueblo San Pedro in New Mexico. This ancestor of Chavez is shared with actor Adrian Grenier who is thus her ninth cousin. Another ancestor of Chavez is Mexican politician and general Manuel Armijo who served as governor of the Mexican territory of New Mexico, then as a general of the Mexican Army, surrendering to U.S. forces in the MexicanAmerican War. Her mother was of English and Irish ancestry. Chavez earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1970. She attended graduate school at UCLA.

Source: Wikipedia