Talk:Casa Zimbabwe

This is Greg Vassilakos again. I added text regarding Heidi's room and the segregation of the wings by gender during the early years of the building. When I was a resident in the early 1980s, Heidi's room was not assigned as a dorm room. Any resident could sign up to use Heidi's room if they needed peace and quiet. The fact that the west wing was originally intended to be all male was evidenced by the existence of urinals in the restrooms. Urinals were absent from the east wing restrooms. All this may have been obliterated by remodeling since I last entered the building in 1983. - Greg V. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Greg christine (talk • contribs) 00:38, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

My name is Greg Vassilakos. I was a resident of Ridge Project from the fall of 1981 to the spring of 1983. I was satisfied with the name of the house. We referred to ourselves as Projectiles. At that time, the USCA had a Minority Affairs committee that was looking to increase the number of minorities at Berkeley in general and in the co-ops in particular. The word “project” had a negative association with public housing, so there was active discussion of changing the name from Ridge Project. An additional issue was the frequent confusion between Ridge Project and Ridge House.

I remember the name “Casa Zimbabwe” first being discussed in early 1983. The name was proposed by Ruben Toyos (Torres?) and Rodney Ferguson. Rodney was the house president. Ruben was on the Minority Affairs committee. Having a mix of Spanish and African words in the name was a strong selling point for Casa Zimbabwe.

Several alternative names were proposed. I vaguely recall an informal poll. I voted for Terrapin Station.

I have seen statements here and elsewhere that the name “Casa Zimbabwe” was satirical. This is absolutely false. Those who championed the name were dead serious about it. White minority rule had recently ended in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, and Robert Mugabe was hailed as a hero. Many believed that Zimbabwe would become a prosperous western-style democracy.

- Greg V.

I am Ruben Toyos, I was a "projectile" from September of '81 to August of '83. I recall the origin of the name. I was hanging out with some other residents who were plotting the "minority take over of the house" in the Spring 83 quarter, since so many minority residents had been elected to leadership positions. I had been elected to the Work Shift Manager position. I was talking about the distinctive South African anti-apartheid protest dances and chants, and we had gotten around to talking about how the house name should reflect the new power dynamics.

I jokingly suggested that, at the next house meeting, we propose changing the name, something along the lines of Rhodesia-to-Zimbabwe, and, by packing the meeting with our supporters, that at the moment we put the proposed name up for a vote, we have our supporters start doing the jumping-up-and-down South Africa protest dance and chanting the name. For added comedic effect, we make it the most politically correct - but inorganic - name possible, something that had two things that did not go together, something as ridiculous as sushi-burritos, to see how far we could push the white guilt of the mostly-PC residents.

I came up with the name "Casa Zimbabwe," as a joke. I considered "Casa Pagoda Kibbutz Tepee Zimbabwe," and while it was super "PC-inclusive-diverse" even I could not say that name with a straight face. We took the proposal to the next house meeting, we proposed it, and it was originally turned down.

It would have been funny as hell to have a dozen people dancing in place chanting "Ca-SA Zim-BAB-way! Ca-SA Zim-BAB-way! Ca-SA Zim-BAB-way!" but we couldn't get enough people together to agree to do it, rehearse, and still keep it a secret. I graduated, moved out, and a year or so later, I came back for a visit, and found out that some people who were underclassmen in 1983, remembered the idea, actually took it seriously, and convinced people to vote to change the name. White liberals be crazy, yo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:12C0:43E0:9105:699A:5EC2:D0EE (talk) 00:47, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

To the anon who left the message on my Talk Page

You have no right to remove historical Co-op information, In large part, it is Casa-Z's history that defines what the usca co-op CZ is today

I not only have the right, I have the obligation. I'm removing gossipy, unsourced, unencyclopedic, and, frankly, subliterate factoids masquerading as encyclopedia information. And while you're yammering about "historical Co-op information" (snort), might I refer you to Verifiability, No original research, and Neutral point of view, which are official Wikipedia policies? In a nutshell, "Because I said so", "Take my word for it", and "Dude, that's what I think" are not acceptable standards here.

Cooperatively yours, Calton | Talk 11:14, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

P.S.: Your "historical Co-op information" isn't even accurate, since Chateau didn't close, it changed its name.

To: Calton

Your information is incorrect
 * Chateau was closed summer '05
 * The usca board of directors changed Chateau's name.
 * Hip(f.k.a. Le Chateau) house opened fall '05

RE: Casa Zimbabwe
 * Removing the flag is just downright not nice.
 * Some information on CZ, factoid-whatever, is better than your little blurb.
 * Get off your wiki-god pillar
 * Your time is surely better spent porting your personal *Cloyne history page to wikipedia?
 * The historical information on past drug use in CZ is in need of rewriting.
 * Drug use in the coop's is common, ignoring that fact is not neutral.


 * Your constructive edits are welcome

Joachim

So many words, so little content. You didn't respond to a single point of mine, except about Chateau -- which you, again, got wrong. If I travel to 2545 Hillegass Ave in Berkeley, what will I see. Why, it's the same building with a different name on it. Still a co-op? Yep, still a co-op. Clicking on Le Chateau gets me -- oh look -- a redirect to Hillegass/Parker House.

Once again, for your reading pleasure, I point to


 * Verifiability - No "Take my word for it"
 * No original research - No "Because I said so"
 * Neutral point of view - No "Dude, that's what I think"

Also, reading a few Featured Articles might do you some good regarding acceptable prose.

And me a wiki-god, eh? Does, this mean I get wiki-worshippers going to a wiki-church (or maybe a wiki-shrine or wiki-temple), who'll offer up wiki-prayers and wiki-sacrifices? Maybe throw some wiki-virgins into the wiki-volcano, to appease the angry Wiki-Volcano-God (presumably Jimbo Wales)? I guess I should enforce a wiki-dress code for the wiki-priests, maybe some stylish purple wiki-robes and maybe some colorful wiki-feathered wiki-headdresses. And I'm not even an administrator, so wiki-god knows what that makes, , or -- especially --. --Calton | Talk 00:06, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

proposed deletion
I've proposed deletion for this article. There's nothing in it which indicates significant notability outside that of the coop system as a whole, and the content in this article is duplicated in the Berkeley Student Cooperative article. Argyriou (talk) 01:34, 24 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I've removed some of the original research and provided several references for the article. I realize at some point there were articles for most of the houses and that most of them were merged with the BSC article. However, I believe that Casa Zimbabwe has received significant coverage in reliable sources to pass WP:GNG and I'm removing the prod for now. Gobonobo  T C 06:15, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110725062353/http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=61 to http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=61

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Moving details from the BCS page to here
I've began moving historical details from the general Berkeley Student Cooperative page to here, there is way too much detail on the BCS page. Rybkovich (talk) 05:46, 23 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Now citing info and also taking out redundant and non objective info. View history for details Rybkovich (talk) 02:02, 27 December 2020 (UTC)