Oscar "Zeta" Acosta Fierro (/əˈkɒstə/; April 8, 1935 – disappeared 1974) was a Mexican American attorney, author and activist in the Chicano Movement.
He wrote the semi-autobiographical novels Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and The Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973),[3] and was friends with American author Hunter S. Thompson.
[1] After the family moved to California, the children were raised in the small San Joaquin Valley rural community of Riverbank, near Modesto.
Acosta went on to San Francisco State University where he studied creative writing,[3] becoming the first member of his family to get a college education.
Known for loud ties and a flowered attaché case with a Chicano Power sticker, Acosta lost to Pitchess' 1.3 million votes but beat Everett Holladay, chief of police of Monterey Park.
In 1973, he published The Revolt of the Cockroach People, a fictionalized version of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium as well as an account of the death of Los Angeles Times columnist Rubén Salazar.
In 1971, Thompson wrote an article about Acosta and the injustice in the barrios of East Los Angeles, as well as the death of Salazar, for Rolling Stone magazine, titled "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan".
[7] Scholar David S. Wills, in High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism, argued that it was Acosta who pushed Thompson to pursue the theme of the American Dream and indeed provided much of the plot of the novel through his actions in Las Vegas.
"[9] Although Thompson and Acosta attempted to work together one more time, their relationship was strained by the dispute over Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and it never fully recovered.
Marco is later quoted in reference to his father's disappearance: "The body was never found, but we surmise that probably, knowing the people he was involved with, he ended up mouthing off, getting into a fight, and getting killed.
"[12] In 1977, Thompson's investigation of Acosta's disappearance, titled "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat", was published in Rolling Stone.