Today In Labor History April 8, 1935: Oscar Zeta Acosta was born on this day. Acosta was a Chicano lawyer, writer and activist in the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973). He was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson, who called him “My Samoan Attorney,” in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974. He is assumed dead.

Acosta studied creative writing at San Francisco State, before turning to the study of law. He moved to east Los Angeles in 1968, where he become active in the Chicano Movement as an activist attorney. He defended The Chicano 13, during the East LA Walkouts, as well as boxer and activist Corky Gonzalez. He once ran for sheriff vowing to abolish the sheriff’s department if elected. He came in second, with over 100,000 votes.

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