He graduated in 1961 at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico where he studied with Augusto H. Álvarez.
[citation needed] In 1962 he married Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, with whom he had two sons, Manuel and Mauricio, and one daughter, Claudia who died at the age of six in 1970.
He won a contest in 1970 to build the Bella Vista Golf Club in México City, and from there on he had a successful career.
At the end of the 1970s he became a strong supporter of Postmodern architecture and claimed to be a follower of the internationally acclaimed Mexican architect Luis Barragán.
Rocha Diaz built in that period important works such as: the SACM recording studios (the first ones in Latin America capable of having a full orchestra with choir), the SACM cinemas that later became the Cineteca Nacional de México, the conventions center in Morelia México, etc.