"The house of indiano" how is known by the place's olderly, is the history of all colonial places that in he beginning of the xix century were giving away in several familiy "leiras" here and there all over galicia. some of them are exact replicas of the caribean arquitecture, while the others are adapted to their original roots without forgetting the caracteristic elements of those places. the interior spaces, the enlarged opened rooms, the colors, smells and shapes...
In the last third of the xviv century, a local 16 year old boy named jesus millares, decided like many other youngsters of that time, to cross the ocean in search of fortune; he got it working hard from the very bottom mananging to built a huge fortune, one of cuba 's most important ones, built in the coal business. Without forgetting his natalvillage, he went back to vilela like many others, buying a huge piece of land where he built a house that he would come to live in 1 month out of the year. this is the reason for the name don.ano (from the galician dialect don - owner and ano - year) which with the time became donano.
He lived the house with some of his tropical friends, and according to some of the villagers he also had living with him a beautiful woman whom they refered to as "la mulata" although it has not been proved.
In 1914 jesus millares died in la habana and his descendents divided the property, and some 20 years later, one of them, manuel millares, bought them all out and got the whole property again. Without being able to sostein the expenses to keep the property up, he started selling little by little the things from within the house and finally in 1961, the house went into someone else's hands for the small amount of $60.000 thousand pesetas. The house was in total abandonment and the land around it without farming.
Only his silent walls and the memories of the vilela villagers maintained alive the splendor that was once lived at the house of DON-ANO.
