New country proves vastly different than Cuban rafters' dreams.

Byline: Marika Lynch

Dodging water cannons and pepper spray, six Cuban men scrambled from a wooden skiff in a desperate bid to reach the Florida coast at Surfside.

Now, a year after the six ran a gantlet of Coast Guard boats and television cameras, their dash to asylum looks like the easy part.

Living in obscurity in Homestead and the Florida Keys, the Surfside Six have gone from Cuban folk heroes who lunched with the mayor and paraded on Calle Ocho to struggling immigrants who can barely afford a meal. They've flailed in undertows of jail time and separation, nearly foundered in the demands of a free society.

One yearns to return to Cuba. All are struggling in a new country vastly different from their dreams.

For Carlos Hernandez Cordova, getting to Florida meant the difference between life and death.

He had made it once before, spending one year in the United States before he returned to Cuba in 1995 after his mother committed suicide.

For a second chance at freedom, he was willing to give his life, he said.

"I felt like the devil was behind me," Hernandez said minutes after he sprinted to the Surfside beach and dove face-first into the sand as crowds cheered.

Now, he says, he wants to return to Cuba _ for good.

The second of the six to reach shore, Hernandez, 30, quickly became the group's affable spokesman. He mugged for the cameras, a wide grin on his narrow face. But soon after the TV lights dimmed, Hernandez's life unraveled.

His troubles began…