View source for The Revolt of the Cockroach People

{{Short description|Book by Oscar Zeta Acosta}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
<!-- |italic title = (see above) -->| name              = The Revolt of the Cockroach People
| image             = "The Revolt of the Cockroach People", by Oscar Zeta Acosta.jpg
| caption           = First edition
| author            = [[Oscar Zeta Acosta]]
| title_orig        = 
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| subject           = 
| genre             = 
| publisher         = [[Straight Arrow Press]]
| pub_date          = 1973
| media_type        = 
| pages             = 258
| isbn              = 0-87932-060-5
| oclc              = 
| dewey             = 
| congress          = 
| preceded_by       = [[Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo]]
| followed_by       = 
}}
'''''The Revolt of the Cockroach People''''' is a novel by [[Oscar Zeta Acosta]]. It tells the story of a [[Chicano]] lawyer, "Buffalo Zeta Brown", fictionalizing events from Oscar Acosta's own life, including the [[East L.A. walkouts]] at [[Garfield High School (California)|Garfield High School]], the founding of the [[Brown Berets]], the [[St. Basil Catholic Church#Chicano protests of 1969–1970|Christmas protests at St. Basil's church]], the Castro v. Superior Court decision of 1970, Acosta's run for [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department|sheriff of Los Angeles County]] later that year, the [[Chicano Moratorium|Chicano National Moratorium]], and the death of [[Ruben Salazar]], who is referred to as "Roland Zanzibar" in the novel.<ref>{{cite court|litigants=Castro v. Superior Court|court=Court of Appeals of California, Second Appellate District, Division Five|reporter=Cal. App. 3d|vol=9|date=July 17, 1970|access-date=January 29, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=736954 |title=Los Angeles County Sheriff |website=Our Campaigns |access-date=January 29, 2019}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Saldívar|first=Ramón|title=Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=1990|isbn=0299124746|pages=95–97}}</ref> The novel is written in the style of [[Gonzo journalism]], the conventions of which he helped codify with American journalist and friend [[Hunter S. Thompson]]. The story of Buffalo Z. Brown, a persona of the author, satirizes the East L.A. Chicano movement through the eyes of a participant observer.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jirón-King |first=Shimberlee |date=2008-03-01 |title=Thompson's and Acosta's Collaborative Creation of the Gonzo Narrative Style |url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol10/iss1/5 |journal=CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture |volume=10 |issue=1 |doi=10.7771/1481-4374.1330 |issn=1481-4374|doi-access=free }}</ref> Acosta uses the historical events of the late 1960s and early 1970s "as the context for the construction of a Chicano identity and the realization of a revolutionary class consciousness."<ref name=":0" />

Acosta frames Brown as a lawyer who understands the United States's legal system as both arbitrary and differential, and therefore comes to the realization that an "objective truth" can never materialize "either in the courtroom or elsewhere." Through the character of Brown, Acosta acknowledges that what is understood as "truth" is a [[Social constructionism|social construct]] or cultural convention. This realization is destabilizing yet invigorating for Brown, who understands that law can function both "as a tool of repression but it may also be used to project a radically new form of legality that cannot be achieved within present institutions," as described by Mexican-American scholar [[Ramón Saldívar]]. Saldívar characterizes this as an important moment for Brown (and Acosta), as he understands that "ideological commitment to a cause" is not a matter of identifying "truth" or "falsehood" but an "issue of taking sides in a struggle between embattled groups."<ref name=":0" />

== Plot ==
The novel starts ''[[in medias res]]'', during the [[St. Basil Catholic Church|Christmas protest at St. Basil Catholic Church]]. Brown becomes involved with the [[Chicano Movement|Chicano movement]] when he moved to [[Los Angeles]] in 1968 while looking to write a book. He spent three years with the Chicano Militants, defending them in various court cases and assisting in organizing protests and marches. The novel depicts the Chicano movement in the fictional [[barrio]] of "Tooner Flats" in [[East Los Angeles, California|East Los Angeles]]. The leaders are eventually indicted on charges of conspiracy to disrupt the schools. Brown defends them and wins.

== Reception ==
As Marcial Gonzalez notes, "not all critics have shared a favorable opinion of Acosta's novel".<ref>{{Cite book |last=González |first=Marcial |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/226357771 |title=Chicano novels and the politics of form: race, class, and reification |date=2009 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-07045-9 |series=Class : culture |location=Ann Arbor |oclc=226357771}}</ref> Critics argued the novel gave shallow explorations of ethnicity, and exaggerates many aspects of the Chicano movement in East LA in a manner not representative to the real events.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Los Angeles in fiction: a collection of original essays |date=1984 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-0759-0 |editor-last=Fine |editor-first=David M. |edition=1st |location=Albuquerque}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bruce-Novoa |title=RetroSpace: collected essays on Chicano literature, theory, and history |date=1990 |publisher=Arte Publico Press |isbn=978-1-55885-013-2 |location=Houston, Tex}}</ref> During this time, Chicano literature assisted in shaping the cultural tropes and concepts of Chicanismo, "creat[ing] socially engaged works fusing mimetic reflections of the socio-political conditions of Chicana/os with myths and symbols."<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Priewe |first=Marc |date=2018 |title=Turn on, Tune in and Drop out in East Los Angeles: Reflexive Nationalism and Urban Space in Oscar Zeta Acosta's The Revolt of the Cockroach People |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/687665 |journal=Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory |volume=74 |issue=1 |pages=73–92 |doi=10.1353/arq.2018.0003 |issn=1558-9595|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Critics hold a shared interpretation that the novel satirizes aspects of Chicanismo and criticizes the contradictions within the movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mendoza |first=Louis |date=2001 |editor-last=Stavans |editor-first=Ilan |title=On Buffaloes, Body Snatching, and Bandidismo: Ilan Stavans's Appropriation of Oscar Acosta and the Chicano Experience |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25745749 |journal=Bilingual Review / La Revista Bilingüe |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=79–86 |jstor=25745749 |issn=0094-5366}}</ref> Marc Priewe argues that Acosta proposes a "reflexive nationalism," against essentialist attitudes of the Chicano movement.<ref name=":2" /> Some believe that reception from Chicano critics reject Acosta's novel because of its criticism of Chicano nationalism building at the time.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

== See also ==
* [[Chicano Liberation Front]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.paperstarter.com/revoltcockroach.htm  Study resource for ''The Revolt of the Cockroach People'']
{{Chicano and Mexican American topics}}{{Cockroach}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Revolt Of The Cockroach People, The}}
[[Category:1972 American novels]]
[[Category:American autobiographical novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Oscar Zeta Acosta]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1970]]
[[Category:Fictional cockroaches]]
[[Category:Chicano]]
[[Category:Chicano literature]]