Zack de la Rocha

About

Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970) is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine. Through both Rage Against the Machine and his activism, de la Rocha promotes left-wing politics in opposition to corporate America, the military–industrial complex, and government oppression.

De la Rocha was born in Long Beach, California, on January 12, 1970, to Robert “Beto” de la Rocha and Olivia Lorryne Carter. His father is a Mexican-American, with distant African and Sephardi Jewish heritage, while his mother was born to Manuel García Urias, a Mexican-American, and Olive Pearl Fleming, who was of German and Irish heritage. Beto was a muralist and a member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973). De la Rocha’s great grandfather, Jose Isaac de la Rocha Acosta (1882–1920), was a Mexican revolutionary who fought in the Mexican Revolution. His maternal grandfather, Manuel García, was originally from Sonora and worked as an agricultural laborer in the U.S. De la Rocha would later see the hardships his grandfather…