Portal:Hispanic and Latino Americans/Selected Individual/22

Oscar Zeta Acosta (April 8, 1935 – disappeared 1974) was an American attorney, politician, novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in his acclaimed novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Acosta was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the small San Joaquin Valley rural community of Riverbank, California, near Modesto. Acosta's father was drafted during World War II.

After finishing high school, Acosta joined the U.S. Air Force. Following his discharge, Acosta worked his way through Modesto Junior College, then he attended San Francisco State University where he took up creative writing becoming the first member of his family to get a college education. He attended night classes at San Francisco Law School and passed the California Bar exam in 1966. In 1967, Acosta began working as an antipoverty attorney for the East Oakland Legal Aid Society in Oakland, California. (more...)