Born in Havana into an aristocratic family with old sugar plantations, he was the 5th child of Dr. José María de Zayas y Jiménez (1824–1887), a noted lawyer and educator, and Lutgarda Alfonso y Espada (1831–1898).

1896), while in transit to Spain's Cárcel Modelo of Madrid, he wrote some of his best poetry, like "Al Caer la Nieve" [1] subsequently published in his Obras Completas, Vol.

A vocal leader of the opposition against the U.S. annexation of Cuba, he voted against the Platt Amendment and against granting naval bases to the United States in Guantánamo and Bahia Honda.

In the contested, 1916 presidential election in which the populist[2] Liberal Party used violent tactics, he obtained more votes than the pro-U.S. candidate, Cornell graduate General Mario García Menocal.

[5] The United States provided military support to García Menocal from Guantánamo Naval Base, without formally invoking its right of intervention pursuant to the Platt Amendment, incorporated in the U.S.-Cuba Treaty of 1903.

[6] He served only one term, during which he started the process to give the vote to Cuban women (resolution in the Senate, 1921), negotiated the return of Cuban sovereignty over the Isle of Pines (Isla de la Juventud, 2,204 square kilometers) which had been occupied by the U.S. since 1898 (Hay-Quesada Treaty of 1903),[7] obtained a US$50 million loan from J.P. Morgan, and for the first time allowed full freedom of expression and of the press.

Particularly, under the terms of the Platt Amendment, the Zayas administration needed either the implicit or the outright explicit approval of the U.S. when it came to securing large financial loans.

He did not run for reelection and devoted his last years to giving conferences and pursuing his manifold literary and historical interests, including the publication of his major work, the two-volume "Lexicografia Antillana", which had seen an earlier edition in 1914, and occupying the post of president of the "Academia de la Historia" until his death.