Zacarías Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970, in Long Beach, California) is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist of Mexican, German, and Irish descent. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine and is currently the frontman of the music duo One Day as a Lion.

Early life and childhood

In his early youth, de la Rocha's father Roberto de la Rocha (known as Beto)—a muralist and member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973), played an integral part in his son's cultural upbringing. Zack also saw the hardships of his Sinaloan grandfather—a revolutionary fighter who fought in the Mexican Revolution and an exploited agricultural laborer in the US, reflected in the struggles of the Zapatistas (also known as EZLN).www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/articles/frontera.htm