EL PASO TIMES (TEXAS) -- Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, an El Paso-born attorney who was a prominent and complicated figure in the Chicano movement and the inspiration for Hunter S. Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, stands with his arms crossed. A crowd of protesters springs from the center of his chest. His hair is windswept into the shape of a buffalo’s horns and a cockroach is perched on his shoulders.
The mural, inspired by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz’s portrait of Acosta, quietly appeared Friday on a previously unadorned wall of Cinco Puntos Press book publishers at 701 Texas Avenue in downtown El Paso.
Acosta was born in El Paso in 1935 and moved to California with his family shortly after. He served in the Air Force and studied Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.