The Moral Vision of César Chavez Agriculture, Food and the Environment in Catholic Social Teaching -- Spring 2008 (Br.) Keith Douglass Warner OFM kwarner@scu.edu; webpage: www.scu.edu/fevp, click on justice for farmworkers Course description This course presents the vocation of César Chavez to investigates the dramatic changes have taken place in our modern agrofood system over the past century. Chavez was profoundly influenced by a Catholic vision of society, and this played a key role in inspiring him to organize Mexican farm workers to fight for their dignity. He addressed human rights, racism, labor organizing, farm workers conditions, environmental protection, food safety, and food access; through his moral vision and agency he challenged people around the world to do the same. This course will provide an overview of Catholic perspectives on agriculture, food and the environment, but also labor organizing and immigration, to examine how Chavez went about achieving this vision using a spirituality of nonviolence. Class assignments will probe his spiritual and moral vision, and explore how it is -- or could be -- carried forward today. This course has two sections. The first half of the course presents Chavez s biography, background, vocation, spirituality, and farm labor organizing activities. This section will include an introduction to the industrialization of agriculture and ag labor, as well as the origin of Catholic social teaching about human dignity and justice in society. It will ask: what was Chavez s moral vision? How did it develop over time, and why? The second half examines the status of farm workers, farm labor unions, and immigrant farm workers today. This half will ask: what would it mean to carry his vision forward today? Were he still alive, what would César do? Course assignments will address these questions in the context of this, the 15 th anniversary of his death. Student learning goals 1. To understand the origins, vocation, moral vision, and impact of César Chavez s life. 2. To learn about the relationship between a moral vision and ethical engagement with social injustice.
3. To understand the development of Catholic social teaching as a coherent body of ethical thought, and how Chavez advanced it through his vocation. 4. To learn about the field of agrofood studies and to survey the dramatic changes that have taken place in the relationships between the environment, agriculture, food, and culture over the past century. 5. To be able to trace the development of Catholic social teaching about human dignity, labor organizing, immigration and agriculture through time. 6. To carry forward Chavez s moral vision to the challenges we face today with race, agriculture, social justice, immigration and sustainability. 7. To reflect on the meaning of our vocations in light of Chavez s moral vision. Course evaluation Worth Due Tracing your family history to farming (or alternative assignment) 10% Ap 10 Describe and explain an aspect of Cesar Chavez s moral vision 15% Ap 29 Compare one of Chavez s discourses with a contemporary one 15% May 8 Popular education poster: immigrant roots 10% My 13 Character based learning plans 20% My 29 Final: a position paper addressing an agro-environmental dilemma 20% Jun 10 Class participation 10% Total 100% Required assignments I will not accept hand written assignments. Please print them on a computer printer. 1. Conduct a brief oral history research with at least 2 family members to find out how far back farmers or farmworkers can be found in your family. Find out what kinds of farming they did, what kinds of crops were grown, under what conditions, and how the crops were marketed. Explain how your family members exited farming, if they already have. 1000 words. You must interview family members even if you think they don t have any connection to ag. For an alternative assignment, see Keith.
2. Describe, explain and interpret one aspect of Chavez s moral vision. Describe it great detail, and explain how it relates to Catholic social teaching. Interpret this in light of several key questions that Keith will provide. 3. A discourse analysis. Analyze one of César Chavez s speeches or written texts, and compare it with a contemporary discourse addressing an ethical dilemma. 4. Create a popular education poster with a partner. 5. Using the text Jesse, create a pair of Character based learning plans to be proposed by the Ethics Center. 6. A final position paper that includes several components, including a moral vision, virtue ethics, and a food ethic. Details TBA. Required Texts Dalton, Frederick John. 2003. The Moral Vision of Cesar Chávez. Maryknoll: Orbis Press. Ferriss, Susan, and Ricardo Sandoval. 1997. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Cesar Chávez and the Farmworkers Movement. Harcourt. Garcia, Mario. 2007. The Gospel of Cesar Chávez. Sheed & Ward. National Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2004. For I Was Hungry and You Gave me to Eat: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers and Farmworkers. Washington, DC: USCC. Martin, Philip L. 2003. Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, & the Farm Workers. Cornell. Wright, Angus. 2005. The Death of Ramon González. Austin: University of Texas Press. NOTE: YOU MUST PURCHASE THE REVISED 2005 EDITION ****Jesse. 1994. Gary Soto. Scholastic. To be provided by Keith & the Ethics Center.**** Reader for Envs 161: The Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez 1. Andrews, David, CSC. 2004. Eating is a Moral Act. Blueprint, LVIII 3, 1-7. 2. Warner, Keith Douglass, OFM. In preparation. The Farm workers and the Franciscans. 3. Wolfteich, Clare. 2005. Devotion and the Struggle for Justice in the Farm Worker Movement. Spiritus 5 (2005): 158 175 4. Allen, Patricia, Margaret FitzSimmons, Michael Goodman, Keith Warner. 2003. Alternative food initiatives in California. CASFS Research Brief. 5. Warner, Keith Douglass. 2007. Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture Through Social Networks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Introduction & ch 1. 6. Wirth, Strohlic and Getz. 2007. Hunger in the fields 7. Mexican Farmers Protest US Trade Pact. 2008. Plagiarism Policy All students will perform their assignments honestly and assignments will be original work. Any plagiarism will result in immediate and appropriate disciplinary action not
limited to failing the course and possible expulsion from the University. (See Student Handbook. ) If you do not understand this policy please consult the instructor. Disability Accommodation Policy: To request academic accommodations for a disability, students must contact Disability Resources located in The Drahmann Center in Benson, room 214, (408) 554-4111; TTY (408) 554-5445. Students must provide documentation of a disability to Disability Resources prior to receiving accommodations. SCU events Spring 2008 relevant to a Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez April 23, Wednesday, Spanish language mass, Concelebrants: Jesuit Fathers Paul Locatelli, Luis Calero and Paul Fitzgerald, Noon, Mission Church Thursday, April 24, Ethics at Noon: "'Amnesty, Ethics, and Immigration: Catholic Perspectives From Both Sides of the Border," Kevin Appleby, Director, Office of Migration and Refugee Policy, US Conference of Catholic Bishops Conference; Erica Dahl-Bredine, Catholic Relief Services-Mexico Country Representative. Co-sponsored by the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education. 12 p.m., Wiegand Room April 24, Thursday, Professor Mario T. Garcia, History Department, UC Santa Barbara, "The Spiritual Journey of Cesar Chavez 3:30-5:00PM, Adobe Lodge Thursday, April 24, Lecture: "On Ethics and Immigration," Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, 7 p.m., Recital Hall April 30, Wednesday, Mariachi Music, Noon, Mission Gardens Tuesday May 20. Noon. CSTS Symposium on pesticide alternatives by Keith at noon. Details TBA 4
Course outline and reading assignments (FIF=Fight in the Fields; GCC=Gospel of Cesar Chavez; MVCC=Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez; FIWH=For I Was Hungry; PU=Promise Unfulfilled; DRG=Death of Ramon Gonzales; R: Copycraft reader) Reading for subsequent class meeting Week Topics Introductions: the course and each other: FIF Forward, I, 1 GCC Forward, I MVCC I, 1 FIF 2, 3 GCC 1, 2, 13 MVCC 2 FIF 4 GCC 8 MVCC 3 FIF 5, 6 GCC 3, 10 MVCC 5 FIF 7 GCC 5, 9, 11 FIF 8 GCC 3, 4 MVCC 4 1A April 1 1B April 3 2A April 8 2B April 10 3A April 15 3B April 17 4A April 22 4B April 24 Moral visions of agriculture, food, labor and the environment Introduction to the modern agricultural dilemma: production vs. protection; the reality of farmworkers Defining the modern agrofood system, and agrofood studies Farmers vs. growers vs. farmworkers vs. peasants Losing the farm: the Chavez case and more generally in Mexico Introduction to Catholic social teaching: practical wisdom Popular religiosity A brief and visual history of farm labor in California Community organizing, labor organizing and unions The Delano Strike The Great Pilgrimage Human dignity Nonviolence as spirituality and social change strategy Economic concentration in the agrofood system Boycott as a strategy for nonviolent social change Pesticides and farm workers Farm Labor Contractors Mario Garcia in Adobe Lodge FIF 9, Epilogue MVCC 6 R: Andrews, Eating is a Moral Act NCCB, For I Was Hungry R: Warner, Farm workers and the Franciscans PU Prologue, 1 DRG Intro, 1 5a April 29 5b May 1 6a May 6 Economic justice and farm worker wages The farm worker movement and its impacts on the Catholic church and food ethics The ongoing challenges of organizing poor immigrant farm workers
R: Wolfteich, Devotion and the struggle for justice 6b May 8 PU 2, 3 7a May 13 DRG 2 7b May 15 R: Warner, Agroecology in action Nonviolence and Farm worker spirituality The challenges of organizing farm workers. Character based learning Pesticides (continued) DRG 6, 7 Jesse PU 8 R: Allen et al, Alternative food initiatives DRG 4, 9 R: Wirth, Hunger in the fields R: Mexican farmers protest US trade pact DRG 10, afterward NO CLASS ON THURSDAY OF WEEK 10 8a May 20 8b May 22 9a May 27 9b May 29 10a June 3 10b June 4 11 June 10 Technology and conflict Farm workers, food ethics, and alternative agfood movements Rural poverty in Mexico Indigenous cultures and justice Rural hunger in Mexico and California Technology and social power Prospects for change NO CLASS THURSDAY OF WEEK 10 Last class