---
title: "about"
layout: base.njk
images: ["about/taco.png"]
description: "but who is taco? and how much does it weigh?"
---

# {{ title }}

<figure>
  <img src="/img/taco_irl.jpg" alt="a smiling mestizo person wearing a Mastodon t-shirt." title="eek, a person!"/>
</figure>

**Daniel A. Gallegos**, also known as **"taco",** is a [full-stack software developer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_stack) and [site reliability engineer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_reliability_engineering) who works with businesses, governments, [educators](https://web.archive.org/web/20230131144232/https://eberly.wvu.edu/news-events/eberly-news/2021/04/12/eberly-college-students-lead-gender-inclusivity-anti-racism-training-at-wvu), [non-profits](https://carrynaloxone.org/), and [startups](https://web.archive.org/web/20160901215818/https://devacademy.la/) to create digital solutions for your real-world problems, ranging from developing government enterprise applications 🖥️, to creating graphic assets for professional digital presence 🎨, to administering servers for harm reduction coalitions 🛠️.

after spending over 15 years working with a variety of frontends, backends, deadends, software, hardware, various operating systems, and more, daniel is more than capable of handling whatever software or hardware problem you need solved.

Daniel has contributed to projects of many shapes and sizes around the world, including developing enterprise software applications for the Peruvian government 🇵🇪, creating on-brand graphic assets for multiple offices at West Virginia University 🎓, redesigning an entire technical institute’s website 🧑‍🎨, working as a system administrator for nonprofits with diverse needs 🤓, and managing hundreds of linux servers in the cloud 🐧. in addition to his extensive software development and system operations experience, Daniel is a skilled technical writer, copywriter, graphic designer, and definitely doesn’t feel weird writing about himself in the third person. he’s a pro! 😉

Daniel holds a Bachelors in Multidisciplinary Studies (BMdS) from [West Virginia University](https://web.archive.org/web/20230728010055/https://lists.wvu.edu/graduation?county=&letter=--&name=&page=5&state=&term=fall&year=2021), which includes areas of study such as:

- 💻 computer science
- 🇺🇸 english
- 🇪🇸 spanish
- 🇪🇨🇨🇴🇻🇪 latin american studies
- 🏳️‍🌈 lgbtq+ studies
- and other classes he took and just enjoyed, tbh

he currently works as a [site reliability engineer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_reliability_engineering) for some big healthcare corporation and as a [webmaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webmaster) for various nonprofit organizations. in his free time, Daniel likes tinkering with linux server administration and self-hosting technologies to better his life and the lives of those around him. as it is with most folks, Daniel’s opinions are his own and do not represent the views of his employer(s).

# colophon

`mestizo.monster` is built with:

- [Markdown](https://commonmark.org/)
- [Eleventy](https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/)
- [Martian Grotesk](https://github.com/evilmartians/grotesk) - released under the [Open Font License (OFL v1.1)](https://openfontlicense.org/)
- [VT323](https://github.com/phoikoi/VT323) - released under the [Open Font License (OFL v1.1)](https://openfontlicense.org/)
- and support from readers like you. thank you!