He established two newspapers in Veracruz, and it was there that his sons Marius and George developed their artistic careers by providing illustrations for the papers.

[1] In 1906 the two brothers began providing caricatures for Mexico City's leading newspaper El Diario, which was founded by American-born journalist Benjamin De Casseres.

A year later the de Zayas newspapers took a strong editorial stance against Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, and under threat their family left Mexico and settled in New York.

On a large wooden platform he created more than 100 free-standing cardboard cutouts of some of New York's most prominent people, seen strolling down Fifth Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel.

In October 1910 de Zayas traveled to Paris, where he stayed for almost a year while scouting out artists and art trends for Stieglitz.

The latter introduced de Zayas to his circle of artists and writers, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, George Bernard Shaw and Alvin Langdon Coburn.

For the next year de Zayas spent a considerable amount of time and energy both editing and creating works of art for the new publication.

For the next three years the gallery presented a steady flow of works by Picasso, Picabia, Braque, Cézanne, van Gogh, Brâncuși, Rivera and other modern artists.