The Revolt of the Cockroach People

By: Oscar Zeta Acosta

Narrated by: Henry Levya

The further adventures of “Dr. Gonzo” as he defends the “cucarachas”— the Chicanos of East Los Angeles.

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Before his mysterious disappearance and probable death in 1971, Oscar Zeta Acosta was famous as a Robin Hood Chicano lawyer and notorious as the real-life model for Hunter S. Thompson's "Dr. Gonzo" a fat, pugnacious attorney with a gargantuan appetite for food, drugs, and life on the edge.

In this exhilarating sequel to The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, Acosta takes us behind the front lines of the militant Chicano movement of the late sixties and early seventies, a movement he served both in the courtroom and on the barricades. Here are the brazen games of "chicken" Acosta played against the Anglo legal establishment; battles fought with bombs as well as writs; and a reluctant hero who faces danger not only from the police but from the vatos locos he champions. What emerges is at once an important political document of a genuine popular uprising and a revealing, hilarious, and moving personal saga.

Critic reviews

"Acosta has entered counterculture folklore:"

-- Saturday Review of Literature

Better take than HST's

A vastly underated influence, political figure, lawyer and writer. He may have burned out like a shooting star, but he didn't retreat into decades of cocaine and Chivas Regal that destroyed his talent, like Thompson. And, as Zeta complained in a letter in HST's collected letters, HST did owe him much for teaching HST how to write dialogue. Once you read Acosta's two books, his influence is impossible to miss in Thompson's work, even if indirect, as both of Acostas books were published after Vegas. Also, Acosta put his ass and his life on the line repeatedly, something Thompson did only in Hells Angels. Acosta carries most of the weight in Vegas anyway. Both of his books recommended highly, glad they're back in print.

Amazing insight

Just get em both! You will not be disappointed, believe that. Not bad for a Samoan lawyer.

Amazing! A Chicano classic.

Amazing! A Chicano classic. Read with an open mind and a critical lens. A must read for all.

This is a hidden gem.

If you want to understand or have any knowledge of the turbulence of the early70s. get this book
If you want a true insider view to the Chicano rights/civil rights movement Without the empty rhetoric and without an outsider's point of view... Read this book. Oscar Zeta Acosta led a fascinating life as a civil and Chicano rights lawyer. He immersed himself in the madness of of the Chicano blowouts / ran for sheriff of LA county and just the madness that was this time frame... get this book. The man partied more than the people he defended! This book was NOT written by any Hispanic but by a Chicano!! you wanna know the difference...you know what to do!

Death is life’s greatest invention.

I think zeta will end up being one of those wild writers that’ll end up influencing my own style the most. A big fan of both volumes of his work I am.