“The Moral Vision of Cesar E. Chavez: An Examination of His Public Life from an Ethical Perspective” Ph.D. Dissertation by Frederick John Dalton

Abstract: Cesar E. Chavez was a national public figure recognized for his leadership of the United Farm Workers, the first farm labor union in the nation’s history to obtain collective bargaining contracts with agricultural employers. During the three decades that Cesar Chavez led la causa, the farm worker struggle for justice, he was regarded by many as a moral leader and a national prophet of justice. This dissertation articulates the moral vision of Cesar E. Chavez by examining his public life as leader of la causa. The thesis of this dissertation is that the public life of Cesar E. Chavez embodies a distinctive moral vision originating in a particular social and religious way of life. I describe Cesar Chavez’s moral vision as a liberative character ethics rooted in a Mexican American migrant farm worker experience. This dissertation elaborates Chavez’s moral vision by examining his notions of the true, the good, and the beautiful; character and community; and normative criteria for judgement and action. The point of departure or locus of moral theological reflection of this dissertation is the Christian praxis of Cesar Chavez. The methodology of this project is inspired by U.S. Hispanic/Latino theological reflection. There is a remarkable correspondence between Cesar Chavez’s experience of impoverishment and commitment to the liberation of the poor, interpreted in the light of faith, correspond to key methodological characteristics of liberative approaches to theology. By elaborating the moral vision of Cesar Chavez, this dissertation demonstrates how Chavez’s conception of the good configures his understanding of character and virtue which in turn determines the personal and collective praxis of the union community through the primary action-guiding norm of nonviolence. Furthermore, this dissertation illustrates that Cesar Chavez’s moral vision encompasses two schools of ethical thought which many ethicists consider to be at odds with one another: liberation ethics, which is often confined to the social realm, and the character/virtue ethics, which is often confined to the personal realm. Thus, Cesar Chavez’s moral vision contributes to the ongoing conversation about the moral life.