Erratic Chicano writer who vanished is focus of new documentary

This 1970 photo released by Raul Ruiz shows attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta at a demonstration in downtown Los Angeles. Acosta, a volatile Mexican-American writer who was the inspiration for Hunter Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is the focus of a new PBS/VOCES documentary airing March 23.

Raul Ruiz/Associated Press

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This 1970 photo released by Raul Ruiz shows attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta at a demonstration in downtown Los Angeles. Acosta, a volatile Mexican-American writer who was the inspiration for Hunter Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is the focus of a new PBS/VOCES documentary airing March 23.

Raul Ruiz/Associated Press

This 1970 photo released by Bob Krueger shows Oscar Zeta Acosta, left, and Hunter S. Thompson at the Hotel Jermone in Aspen to discuss Thompson’s campaign to become sheriff. Acosta, a volatile Mexican-American writer who was the inspiration for Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is the focus of a new PBS/VOCES documentary airing March 23.

Raul Ruiz/Associated Press

×

This 1970 photo released by Bob Krueger shows Oscar Zeta Acosta, left, and Hunter S. Thompson at the Hotel Jermone in Aspen to discuss Thompson’s campaign to become sheriff. Acosta, a volatile Mexican-American writer who was the inspiration for Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is the focus of a new PBS/VOCES documentary airing March 23.

Raul Ruiz/Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE — Oscar Zeta Acosta, a volatile Mexican-American writer who was the inspiration for Hunter S. Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is the focus of a new VOCES/PBS documentary.

“The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo” traces the life of the preacher-turned-lawyer-turned-writer who became a central figure in the Chicano Movement before disappearing without a trace in Mexico in 1974.

The PBS documentary uses actors to dramatize Acosta’s own words and the testimonial interviews of friends. As a lawyer in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Acosta defended radical Mexican-American activists.

He later traveled with Thompson on a drug-fueled Las Vegas trip where he was portrayed as a 300-pound Samoan lawyer in Thompson’s novel. Afterward, Acosta wrote two memoirs that become Chicano literature classics.

The documentary airs on most PBS stations on March 23.