Zack de la Rocha is the vocalist for the band Rage against the machine, as well as the member who
came up with the name. His life story is mysterious, but here's some of it pieced together: 

Zack was born in Long Beach, CA in 1970. 

First we'll look at his roots. His mother got her Ph.D. in Anthropology, and she lived in Irvine, an
Orange County Suburb. His father Beto de la Rocha, was an artist, a member of the political group
the "Los Four" which depicted pictures of the Mexican farmers, and brought up Chicano history.
His parents seperated when he was about 1 year old. In 1983, his father suffered a nervous
breakdown due to excessive religious ideals. He took the bible as EVERY part of his life. When he
read the passage, "thou shalt not make engraven image", (or something like that...)he and the forced
Zack tour up all the paintings of his, that Zack loved so much. When Zack went to visit him on
weekends in Lincoln Heights, in LA, he would be forced to fast for days, to sit in a room with the
curtains closed and the door locked. He would eat on Friday, and not eat until he returned to his
mother on Monday. After awhile, he couldn't cope with that any longer, and permanantly lived with
his mother in Irvine, perhaps the whitest city in Southern California. This brought on a culture shock
for the young Zack. Due to not visiting his father any more, he lost grip of the Chicano community,
and fell where he was pretty much the exeption of the rule, where Chicanos where only there to
work, or sell strawberries... 




Zack went on to play guitar for a band called "Hardstance" and also did vocals, then he formed
Inside Out with current members of State of the Nation. They released on record, and then broke
up. That's when Rage against the Machine was formed. Since then, Zack has organized college
groups, and activists to visit Chiapas, Mexico, with which is heavily involved, and the National
Commission for Democracy in Mexico. He has given presentations to high school students, and is
currently working on/at a community service in L.A. 

  Zack's Influences 
  "In junior high I got into the Sex Pistols,
  Bad Religion, Social Distortion. Then I
  got into hardcore at sixteen, seventeen.
  Hardcore was the whole expression of
  my being: Minor Threat, Bad Brains,
  Teen Idles, State Of Alert with Henry
  Rollins." "I lived [in Irvine], but I never
  felt totally accepted as one of these rich
  white suburban kids. I wasn't
  economically deprived like so many of
  my Chicano brothers and sisters, but I
  felt the tension and the rejection--and
  that's when I started getting into
  hip-hop, started break-dancing. `The
  Message,' `Rapper's Delight,'
  Run-DMC...that was what was
  happening around that time." "Inside
  Out was the first band I ever fronted. I
  channeled all my pain through that
  band. It was about completely
  detaching ourselves from society to see
  ourselves as...as spirits, and not bowing
  down to a system that sees you as just
  another pebble on a beach. But Inside
  Out went through were a ton of lineup
  changes." "You can't ignore what some
  bands have done. I know that from my
  own experience, from the way my life
  was changed by Fuck Armageddon,
  This Is Hell by Bad Religion. I know
  our record will be in a bin next to
  Lionel Richie--but so are John
  Coltrane, KRS-1 and Boogie Down
  Productions, and Public Enemy."