The mansion is an imitation of the African hunting bungalows. It is at the entrance to the city of Caibarién and at present is a center for the care of the mentally ill. But beyond its peculiar construction, this was the childhood home of Robert McNamara, who was U.S. Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War and later president of the World Bank. The U.S. politician spent his early years among the coconut and mango trees in the mansion’s garden. That’s how the oldest neighbors of the zone remember it. José Antonio Patiño is a fan of the history of Caibarién, which was established near the city of Remedios. For him “the McNamaras’ stay in the city has been one of those unresolved enigmas of the so-called Villa Blanca, since they hardly mixed with the community. They lived their lives there, as if they were in the United States.” According to Benito Carreras, the Caibarién Historian, the father of the family, Eduard McNamara, was the representative of the only U.S. company that had business in the docks at that time, a commercial entity that basically was in charge of linking the Villa Clara locality with New York through steam ships....