LA Literature - Valez Geography

Acosta's L.A. Travels

Throughout the Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar Z. Acosta, we follow the Brown Buffalo himself in his adventures through the cities of Los Angeles County. In this autobiographical saga, readers are mentally given a vivid street tour from Hollywood to East Los Angeles. Plus a round trip to Acapulco.

Zeta gives accurate descriptions and locations of the places referenced in the book. Although he was accurate with most of the locations he mentions, the places themselves have been replaced with new buildings or names. A liquor store is still on Indiana St. & Whittier Blvd, but it does not have the name Laguna Liquors as Zeta states in the book.

Pg.11 Three hundred Chicanos have gathered in front of St. Basil's Roman Catholic Church.

Pg.12 Cars pass along Wilshire Blvd. and slow down when they see us.

Pg.22 After checking into the Belmont at Third & Hill, I walked the streets until the dark to shake the cramping bus ride from my bones.

Pg.24 I even wore it for 9 months while I practiced at sounding like a lawyer in a legal aid office in the slums of East Oakland.

Pg.24 "Your name is Howly?" I say to her as we buzz down the freeway toward Canoga Park, a San Fernando Valley suburb of L.A.

Pg.26 Now he owned Manny's Fish Bowl in East L.A. where all his old college chums & High school buddies come and reminisce over cold Coors.

Pg.29 It was the rehearsal for graduation of Riverbank Grammar School.

Pg. 39 First one, then two, then a hundred students & Chicano Militants are seated in the middle of Whittier Boulevard.

Pg 90 But first he went down to Cronie's on Whittier Blvd. The Chicano Sunset Strip. Pg. 198 Whittier Boulevard- The Strip

Pg. 209 It seemed that twenty-five thousand Chicanos had marched down Whittier Boulevard.

Pg. 239 We were instructed to proceed to the area of the Silver Dollar Bar on Whittier Blvd.

Pg.48 Down the block, the farmer's market is open to thousands who come from across the river to buy green chiles, tamales, carnitas, tamarindo, nopales and all the vegetables that Chicanos use.

Pg.52 I am sweating like a pig when I arrive at the Downtown Police Station, Parker Center, only four blocks from my hotel.

Pg.58 "Let's go to Placita Square now!" I shout, we are to rally there.

Pg. 81 Victor and the other defendants in the St. Basil Twenty -One organize the campuses and bring out the finest broads to dance with me at the Hollywood Palladium, where we hold a dance-rally on Mother's Day.

Pg169 We enter the auditorium of the Sports Arena on the USC campus.

Pg.149 When we arrive at the gray complex at N. Broadway and Vignes Street, I am met at the door by a sergeant in uniform and another bald cop in a brown suit.

Pg.135 ... Mr. Brown, I should say, is the attorney for the family of Robert Fernandez, who was found dead in his cell at the East L.A. Sheriff's substation, and whose inquest we have been carrying live for our viewers.

.Pg. 91 The East LA Sheriff Substation is only three blocks away from Third Street, right alongside the Pomona Freeway

Pg.246 I went to the East LA Sheriff Substation to visit my client.

Pg. 136 He has recently returned from Vietnam & has a weekly column in the largest newspapers west of Chicago, the Los Angeles Times.

Pg. 133 To the surprise of the clerk, I file my candidacy for the office of Sheriff of Los Angeles County, population seven million.

Pg.105 We are in his plush office in Beverly Hills.

Pg. 98 The following Tuesday, I again enter the Hall of Justice.

Pg. 255 ... The LA Hall of Justice at Temple & Broadway has just been rocked by an explosive blast.

Pg. 88 I am now living in a small apartment on Sixth Street, not too far from Cronies and Garfield High.

Pg. 248 I can hear the dudes who presently live in my own pad at Sixth Street

Pg. 248 I can hear the dudes who presently live in my own pad at Sixth Street.

Pg. 238 This is the house on Sixth Street?

Pg 198 We cross Atlantic, Olympic, Indiana, Brooklyn, Soto.

Pg. 199 The film is cut to a liquor store on Whittier Boulevard, at the corner of Indiana, two blocks from the park- Laguna Liquors.

.Pg. 200 ... you know exactly where the corners of Indiana and Whittier are, you have driven across that intersection a hundred times, you have eaten menudo at the restaurant at the corner, you've eaten burritos at the hot dog stand across from the park, you have been in that park yourself...

Pg. 224 And then I am transferred back to the LA New County Jail where my friend, Sergeant Lovelace, has prepared my old cell in the nut ward.

Pg.242 He was working out of the Rampart Police Station the day of the riot.

Pg. 256 We drive to the corner of Soto and Brooklyn

Pg. 255 We are into traffic at Temple and Sunset before we take a breath...