Hi, right now you are reading my first blog post!! I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself in this one so here you go.

My name is David Darias, I graduated around two years ago from Computer Science at Havana University in Cuba. Currently I am an assistant professor at the university on the topics of Computer Architecture, Machine Programming, Computer Vision and Game Development.

Here I want to share my experiences as a cuban software developer and a teacher at the faculty of Computer Science. I will try to cast a light over the probably-bigger-than-you-think cuban tech community and its intricate details. If you don’t think I am right, here are some ballpark numbers for you: just in Havana every year we graduate 50 Computer Science majors at Havana University, around 200 Software Engineers at CUJAE University and more than 1000 at the University of Informatics Science. Taking in to account that this numbers haven’t changed in the last 10 years and that we are a small island, the percent of software developers is bigger than most countries.

This situation has developed a tech community that, due to connectivity limitations, is completely unknown to the rest of the world. It is really baffling to see a developer from Google in Cuba and asking me if we use computers from the 80s or if I knew what Python was. I know that this is what many people think, mainly because there is a complete silence coming from us. Well… I’ll do my best to change it.

Stay tunned for more.

PD: I have been asked what does the term High Tropicality Conditions on the blog title means. This is a term coined by the professor and colleague Ernesto Altshuler that refers to the lack of resources and outdated work environments that is commonly found in Latin American countries like Cuba. The term also refers to the ability that cubans have developed to tackle modern problems relying on modest material means and uncommon inventiveness.