Basil's church, the Castro v. Superior Court decision of 1970, Acosta's run for sheriff of Los Angeles County later that year, the Chicano National Moratorium, and the death of Ruben Salazar, who is referred to as "Roland Zanzibar" in the novel.

"[3] Acosta frames Brown as a lawyer who understands the United States's legal system as both arbitrary and differential, and therefore comes to the realization that an "objective truth" can never materialize "either in the courtroom or elsewhere."

This realization is destabilizing yet invigorating for Brown, who understands that law can function both "as a tool of repression but it may also be used to project a radically new form of legality that cannot be achieved within present institutions," as described by Mexican-American scholar Ramón Saldívar.

Saldívar characterizes this as an important moment for Brown (and Acosta), as he understands that "ideological commitment to a cause" is not a matter of identifying "truth" or "falsehood" but an "issue of taking sides in a struggle between embattled groups.

[6][7] During this time, Chicano literature assisted in shaping the cultural tropes and concepts of Chicanismo, "creat[ing] socially engaged works fusing mimetic reflections of the socio-political conditions of Chicana/os with myths and symbols.