Rodriguez was born in Cuba, shortly before Fidel Castro's revolution successfully ousted Batista at the start of 1959. Rodriguez's father, Marcos Rodriguez Sr., who was 34 at the time, was director and salesman for CMKF, a local radio station in the city of Holguín in the Oriente province. As Castro's revolutionary reforms resulted in the nationalizing of radio stations, the radio station's format, like others in Castro's Cuba, was changed, becoming a source for disseminating propaganda for the revolutionary movement. Rodriguez Sr. was demoted from his previous positions to become an announcer and was required to read propaganda over the airwaves, a situation to which he objected.