# Re: In the song "Hotel California," what does "colitas" mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/279415>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 12, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/279415 "2004-12-12T05:33:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![juanfh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ba0ec/32.png) [@juanfh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/juanfh)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/279415/1 "2004-12-12T05:33:51Z")

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Quote Cecil:

> [@](#):
>
> [In the song “Hotel California,” what does “colitas” mean?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_001.html)
> 
> As for “Hotel California,” you realize a lot of people aren’t troubled so much by colitas as by the meaning of the whole damn song. Figuring that we should start with the general and move to the particular, I provide the following commonly heard theories:
> 
> (1) The Hotel California is a real hotel
> 
> \<snip\>
> 
> (2) The Hotel California is a mental hospital. I see one guy on the Web has identified it as “Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara.”

I was at Las Encinas mental hospital at Pasadena CA, and fame there is, it’s about that place. The intern who told me tells that the part _So I called up the captain; please bring me my wine / He said we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine_ refers to the fact that in the ole days interns could have wine there, not anymore later.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/279415/2 "2004-12-12T13:51:20Z")

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Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **juanfh** , we’re glad to have you with us.

When you start a thread referring to one of Cecil’s columns, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to that column. Helps keep us all on the same page, saves search time, and is generally considered the nice thing to do. It’s no biggie, and I’ve edited the link into your post for you, so you’ll know for next time.

As I say, welcome.

You might also be interested in prior threads on this topic:

[In the song “Hotel California”, what does “colitas” mean?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=57033)

[I KNOW THE ANSWER re: Hotel California lyrics](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=48569)