On November 25, 1999, three Cuban refugees were rescued off the coast of Florida. It was a story made for Thanksgiving, and one the refugees, six-year old Elián Gonzolas, quickly captured the imaginations of two countries. The situation, though, would soon be overwhelmed by politics. Castro demanded that the boy be returned to be his father in Cuba; the Cuban-American community insisted that he belonged in the United States. The Thanksgiving rescue story, and Elián himself, would soon be lost within the controversy.