In recent years, Ms. Chavez, a syndicated columnist, has taken polarizing positions in the debates about affirmative action, bilingual education and immigration.
Since 1962, revisions to the constitution could be made by voters without calling a convention, and most general ballots now contain dozens of propositions on issues that have included tax rates, affirmative action, bilingual education, and same-sex marriage.
Republicans persuaded voters to ban bilingual education and affirmative action in public institutions, toughen penalties for violent juvenile offenders and limit class-action lawsuits.
There were some successes in the form of provisions for bilingual education and affirmative action programs.
Albert Shanker, the union's president, became her mentor and influenced her views on affirmative action and bilingual education.
The party has still not recovered.Ending affirmative action and bilingual education, on the other hand, had wide support among Latinos from the start.
Along with other Republican-backed measures aimed at overturning bilingual education and affirmative action, Proposition 187 drove a whole generation of Hispanics into the Democratic fold.
"Disparate impact is a problematic legal matter and difficult to prove," said Roger Clegg, general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a right-leaning group that opposes affirmative action and bilingual education.
Thus resulted an uneasy marriage of preposterous 18th-century racial classifications to legitimate 20th-century policy goals like fair electoral representation, anti-discrimination programs, school desegregation, bilingual education and affirmative action.
Her allies describe her as strongly committed to racial and ethnic equality, but she has often been at odds with Hispanic activists, in part because she opposes affirmative action and bilingual education.
