Today in Labor History January 31, 1971: For the second time in six months, rioting broke out during an anti-war protest in East Los Angeles. Police fired into the crowd, killing one protester. The anti-war demonstrations were organized by the Chicano Moratorium. Chicanos were dying at a higher rate during the Vietnam War than white Americans. During the August 29, 1970 protests, police killed three people, including Journalist Ruben Salazar. Oscar Zeta Acosta portrayed Salazar in his 1973 novel, “The Revolt of the Cockroach People.” Hunter S. Thompson portrayed Acosta as his “Samoan attorney” in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
"Nobody will be sure about his final fate. He will be involved in drug trafficking, and during a trip on a friend's boat, in June 1974, from Mazatlán, a resort place on Mexico's Pacific coast, to Southern California, he will disappear, strangely and without trace."
From Bandido: The Death and Resurrection of Oscar Zeta Acosta by Ilan Stavans
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