Few people in the rally caravan profess devotion and love for the Dakar like Sara Gutiérrez in just two years of experiences on the ground. In her case, as an intrepid radio and television reporter for RTVE... and as “mayor of the bivouac.” That is what the pilots, mechanics and colleagues of the Dakar family affectionately call her since they saw her walking along the main street of the traveling camp, talking to participants, agreeing to an interview or showing interest in the fate of a runner...
–The Dakar excites me, there I have cried like never before, I have laughed like never before. It is an experience that has changed my life – says this journalist who, as a child, when she was in primary school, already dreamed of announcing soccer games, but who discovered the rally in December 2017, shortly after landing on TVE. Her partner Marc Martín, director of the Dakar special program on the public channel, proposed that she be part of the writing team, behind the cameras.
–I remember Marc told me: “Once you try it, it will change your life.” And he has completely changed it for me.
So much so that now Sara feels an addiction to the Dakar beyond work: it is a vital necessity.
–It has touched me deeply in just two years of going. I wouldn't change it for anything, professionally, not even for covering the Olympic Games. There is nothing else that means what the Dakar means – he assures –. Or you love it, or hate it. At the end of the rally, when everyone is already eager to return home, I hope it lasts another week. I have established a tradition: on the last day I walk around the bivouac alone when everyone is sleeping. And I cry every year. Because I don't want to leave. Like a child from the colonies...
And that, as Sara remembers, covering the rally on site “is not a comfortable job” for the journalist, who takes physical beatings like the rest of the participants.
–People have no idea of the great effort that a Dakar journalist makes, nor of the magnitude of the hardness: the few hours that you sleep – I, an average of four a day –, you get up very early, at 3, at 5... to catch planes, and you go to sleep very late waiting for the pilots to arrive; the conditions in which you sleep – not in a bed like a princess, but on a mat on the floor with the sleeping bag –, with people around, with noise... And zero privacy, for a woman and for everyone .
Discomforts and deprivations that sharpen ingenuity.
–In the end you apply techniques such as the work table and a towel serving as a screen, to have the feeling that no one sees you… –explains Gutiérrez, who usually settles in the television room or in a tent. , like one more, in an open haima with the 200 motorcycle riders.
But the physical hardness, the technical difficulties, dragging a 20 kilo backpack or the fatigue that accumulates during 15 days of rallying is compensated by Gutiérrez with the great satisfaction he obtains in his work.
–The best feeling I got from the first Dakar was the familiarity, the bond with the drivers...
And, of course, the possibility of “explaining human stories.”
–In these years, the Dakar has taught me that it is very difficult for everyone to arrive, from the amateur to the professional, and everyone deserves to have a space to explain how they have arrived, who they are. Sometimes there are very brutal stories... I look for this because it is a way to bring the race closer to people who don't like motors. I try to interest the person I interview and the competition. In the Dakar everyone is at the same level, no one is exempt from something happening to them. This is the fun of this rally: that Carlos Sainz needs the help of anyone passing by.
But in addition to giving a voice to the suffering participants in the Dakar, Gutiérrez always takes home a lesson:
–That I am capable of doing more than I could think. When I think I can't give more of myself, there is always a little further to go. And knowing that the people around you make you have a better experience.
Despite a specific episode of harassment she suffered and the lack of privacy, Gutiérrez feels very safe and loved in the caravan.
–Because I am one of the youngest, everyone takes great care of me. I tell my parents: “Don't suffer, because in the Dakar I will be with another family, triple cared for.”
She is the mayor for a reason.
