CARDENAS, Cuba -- From a lonely stretch of beach, Elian Gonzalez, his mother and 12 others set sail a year ago on a fateful journey that left the little boy adrift and divided Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.
Now, months after Elian was repatriated to his native Cuba, the massive protests outside the American mission in Havana and the media circus outside the boy's relatives' home in Miami are a part of the past.
The riots sparked when armed federal agents seized the child and returned him to his father on April 22 are fading from memory. Elian is living the quiet life of a second-grader in his hometown of Cardenas -- though uniformed police still protect him from reporters.
Elian's odyssey began Nov. 21, 1999, when 14 people set sail from a lonely stretch of beach in Cardenas, bound for Florida. The ship capsized, and Elian was found adrift on Nov. 25, one of only three survivors.
The wan little boy, rescued Thanksgiving Day, had lost his mother. He was immediately embraced by his Miami relatives and adopted as a symbol by Cuban-Americans who oppose the communist regime of Fidel Castro.
In Havana, Cubans staged massive protests outside the U.S. mission, calling for the child's return. In Miami, outside his relatives' Little Havana home, there were daily prayer vigils and a media frenzy that seemed to document his every move. His great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and cousin Marisleysis appeared on television almost daily.
Eventually, though, the Miami relatives lost a legal tussle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Castro claimed Elian's June 28 return to Cuba as one of his sweetest victories in four decades of power. Though many in Miami were skeptical, predicting the child would become a propaganda tool, Castro vowed to protect the family's privacy.
He appears to be keeping his promise. Elian's name has disappeared from state media and official speeches, and his timid visage has been erased from billboards along the capital's main thoroughfares. His face is only occasionally seen on the T-shirts hundreds of thousands of Cubans wore during scores of street protests calling for his return.
In Miami on Wednesday, Cuban exile groups held a quiet memorial service for Elisabeth Brotons, Elian's mother, and the others who died on the voyage.
In Cardenas, a two-hour drive east of Havana, a police officer outside Elian's modest home told journalists the Gonzalez family wouldn't grant any interviews. Another officer stood outside Elian's elementary school.
Four officers guarded the dirt road between the shrubs and mangrove trees leading to La Sierra, the beach where his journey began.
By all accounts, Elian, who will turn 7 on Dec. 6, is doing well. His grandparents and uncles drop him off at school and pick him up every day on their bicycles.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, works as a waiter at an Italian restaurant that caters to tourists at Josone Park, near Cardenas. Inside the restaurant, there is a small picture of the man who traveled to the United States to claim his son posing with several co-workers.
While that custody case was unique, the secret, treacherous trip across water that necessitated it wasn't.
"Every day someone leaves and every day there is an anniversary," said Luanda Leon, whose son Ariel, 7, goes to school with Elian.
The case underscored the differences that divide so many Cuban families. For the relatives of the two adult survivors, the anniversary of the voyage is less public, but equally poignant.
"I feel sad, have bitter moments when I think about all those other families. How are they feeling today?" said Elsa Alfonso, whose daughter, Arianne Horta, 23, survived the journey, along with her boyfriend, Nivaldo Fernandez.
Horta's 6-year-old daughter Estefany, left behind in Cardenas at the last minute, attends first grade at Elian's school.
"I was lucky, I have them both alive," Alfonso said, referring to her daughter and granddaughter. Though they are apart, she said, Estefany still has her mother -- "but not Elian."
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