The "Indianos" walking tours of the Costa Brava

An attempt to "do America" (hacer Americas) was not a dream but a beginning of adulthood for many young Catalans hailing from small seaside villages in the 19th century. Observing their compatriots leave for Columbia, Argentina or Puerto Rico only to come back two decades later with incredible wealth, many youngsters naturally wanted to follow suit.

Spaniards often "did America" in the 18th, 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, making their fortunes on trading of tobacco, textiles, cork, coffee, sugar and wheat—usually coupled with horrific exploitation of the New World's local populace and slave trade. At some point, the language adopted a way to describe the new capitalist way of colonization profiteering—a lengthy explanation of "a person who went to the Americas, got wealthy and returned home to enjoy a life of luxury" was replaced with a short and simple "indiano".

A house in which an indiano would enjoy his luxurious life was easy to distinguish among dozens of others, even by people not familiar with the phenomenon. If you encounter an opulent mansion that seems out of place in an ancient pueblo you're visiting, but would fit right in on the Champs-Élysées, it's very likely been built with the money made in a former Spanish colony.

The choice of the architectural style for an indiano home depended on the fashions of the day that dominated Europe during an indiano's triumphant return home. In the mid-19th century, it was the Neo-Classical style, which was replaced at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century by the Art Nouveau.

A colonial style is often mentioned in the context of indiano houses, but this implies that the architecture of the colonies was inspired by the colonizing state. With indianos, it's the opposite—led by the nostalgia for their youth spent in South America, wealthy owners often commissioned houses "like over there". Today, there is no need to travel further than Spain to see the houses the bourgeoisie in Cuba or Puerto Rico would build for themselves across the ocean.

Here are some telltale exterior and interior signs of an indiano house:

• The entrance: the owner's initials;
  
• The exterior walls: medallions of famous colonizers, frescoes of sea voyages and exotic locales, reliefs of tobacco leaves, sugar cane and cacao;
  
• The back facade: a gallery with columns and arches;
  
• The garden: ancient god sculptures, fountains, ponds, palm trees and bamboo;
  
• Inside the house: opulent decor, high ceilings, wide staircases, a large salon on the ground floor with an obligatory fireplace, the furniture made from mahogany, bamboo and jacaranda.