Linda Reyna Yáñez (born Soila Linda Reyna, November 30, 1948) is a former American judge, Harvard Law clinical instructor and the former Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Chicago, Illinois.
[1] Yáñez was born in her family home in Rio Hondo, Texas.
[2] Yáñez was socially and academically successful, and was active in the National Honor Society and student government, though she was affected by racial discrimination in her segregated school.
[3] She was a member of the Young Democrats and Model Organization for American States, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1970.
[4] After a period of time working in Washington, D.C. for then-President Richard Nixon's Committee on Opportunity for the Spanish-Speaking, and in Weslaco, Texas as a schoolteacher, Yáñez earned her Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University in Houston.