Orlando Zapata Tamayo was born on 15 May, 1967 in Santiago de Cuba. Simple men of humble origins, worked as a bricklayer and plumber before settling in Havana and joining the dissent movement. In April 2002 he founded the Cuban capital, along with other peaceful opponents, the Movimiento Alternativa Republicana (Alternative Republican Movement), and was one of the promoters of the popular activist group of Central Park (Peña del Parque Central), which openly discussed sensitive issues involving Cuban current events. On 6 December of the same year he was arrested by secret police on charges of “desacato” (contempt) , and on 20 March 2003, just 13 days after his release, he was again arrested as part of the crackdown known as the Black Spring of Cuba, after which 75 dissidents and independent journalists were arbitrarily sentenced to decades in prison. Zapata was sentenced on 18 May 2004 to three years in prison, but his rebellious attitude and his defense of human rights in captivity earned him successive summary trials, that added up to a 36-year sentence.

In early December 2009, Zapata Tamayo, who had held several hunger strikes began his last one in the Kilo 8 prison in Camaguey. He was protesting against the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that he and other prisoners of conscience were being subjected to. The reaction of his jailers was violent; they even denied him water for several days. On 16 February 2010, in critical condition, Zapata was transferred to Havana, where he died on February 23, at 42 years of age. Although many political prisoners have died in Castro's prisons as consequence of hunger strikes, Zapata’s sacrifice has put a fresh face to the tragedy of the Cuban civil society, lacking the most basic human and civil rights. Zapata's death, who in life dedicated body and soul for the cause of freedom in Cuba, has become a symbol of resistance for those who are at risk of dissent on the island for those who defend the rights of Cubans in worldwide.
This is why, Zapata Lives!