Seydi Rodriguez Gutierrez

Non ti avrei conosciuto

Seydi Rodriguez Gutierrez’s diary tells the story of a never ending voyage, one that begins with the first dance steps she takes as a child on a Caribbean island. Seydi dreams of leaving Cuba but she knows that, if leaving might be difficult, to come back would be impossible. In the late 90s a band is looking for dancers for a tournée in Italy. This is a life changing occasion and six months later Seydi, who’s not twenty years old yet, decides not to go back to Cuba with the band. She will never go back.

That’s when she begins her new chapter as an expat, exiled, counter-revolutionary, migrant. How many things might a Cuban outside of Cuba in the Nineties? After some time she settles in Trentino where she teaches dance to girls and young women, where she meets Angel, a cuban like her, and where their daughter Sarah Sofia is born.

Seydi Rodriguez Gutierrez’s diary is part of Il confine tra noi. Storie migranti, a collection of the shortlisted stories of DiMMi, Diari Multimediali Migranti 2019.