# Forage report — Cristo Rey (news · media · stories), 2026-07-19

**Bead:** [rhetoric `6715f286` (John)](../../about.md) · Raw returns verbatim in [artifacts/forage/](../artifacts/forage/) (news.md · media.md · stories.md). Three forager subagents, all URLs live-verified by them.

## 1. The corrected fact base (supersedes our working assumptions)

| Fact | Value | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| **What is being taken** | **14.259 acres** — a ~190-ft-deep strip along the border at the mountain's SOUTH BASE. NOT the whole tract, NOT the summit. | KVIA 5/12, Newsweek, KOB, ABQ Journal |
| Deposit | **$183,071** into the court registry, ordered **June 15, 2026** by **Chief Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales** (D.N.M.); government claims title vested on deposit; possession still contested | KOB, OSV News |
| Filing | Complaint in condemnation, **May 7, 2026**, D.N.M.; authorized by **DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin**; environmental waiver by former Sec. Noem | KVIA, OSV, ABQ Journal |
| What CBP builds | Steel bollard "Smart Wall," patrol roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, cameras, sensors; government: construction **≥1,050 ft from the shrine**, summit access "continue without interruption" | KVIA, KOB 7/16, ABQ Journal |
| **Blasting already began** | **April 6, 2026**, at the mountain's base | KVIA/Puente 4/6 |
| Diocese posture | First Amendment + RFRA opposition AND a **jury-trial demand on compensation** (7/6 answer), citing the government's own **$798,500** appraisal of a nearby **7.3-acre** state parcel — half the size, 4× the price | OSV 7/16, KOB 7/16 |
| Prior cooperation | Diocese permitted a CBP access road + motion sensors on its land in **2021, renewed 2023**; a CBP **surveillance tower already stands on the mountain** (photographed May 2024, CC BY 4.0) | CNA 6/30; Commons/Meyer |
| Pilgrimage scale | ~**40,000/year**; 8,000–12,000 on Good Friday; 12,000 at the 1939 dedication; 33,000 at the 1989 anniversary | Newsweek, ABQ Journal, EPCC |
| **The state's parallel fight** | Land Commissioner **Garcia Richard** publicly fought the SAME wall project's condemnation of ~7 acres of **state trust land** near Santa Teresa ("Doing business with these thugs was simply not an option"; the taking "den[ies] our school kids the revenue") | Source NM 5/1 |
| Hearing posture (as of 7/19) | Gov't 7/6 motion for immediate possession; 7/16 status conference; the 7/23 Las Cruces hearing **postponed**, no new date reported | KOB 7/16 |

## 2. What this changes in the narratives (v0.1 → v0.2 corrections applied)

1. **Precision on the taking**: all three narratives now say *a 14-acre strip across the mountain's base* — overstating it as "taking the mountain" would hand the government its rebuttal ("≥1,050 ft from the shrine"). Our counter is Winder's, not denial: the wall is a **"30-foot 'Keep Out' sign below"** a Christ whose palms bless both nations; you do not have to touch the altar to profane the approach.
2. **The quinceañera line is CUT** (narrative 03): the story forage found no documented tradition. Replaced with REAL particulars: barefoot pilgrims, the on-their-knees final ascent, the *manda* for Tía Güera, Ramon Garcia's 73 years.
3. **The valuation firewall holds but bends**: the Diocese itself now litigates compensation (jury demand, the 4×-disparity comparable). Public narratives may cite the disparity as **process contempt** (the government's own numbers disagree with each other) — never as "pay us more."
4. **Prior cooperation is our strength, not our embarrassment**: the Diocese said YES to the road, the sensors, the tower. "We accepted the cameras; we refuse the wall" is the least-restrictive-means argument as lived history (T1/P5 fused).
5. **The community is not a monolith** (Escandon pro-wall, Fincher's shrug): narratives acknowledge the divide; honesty IS the ethos play.
6. **The state thread is real and hot**: Garcia Richard's Santa Teresa fight + the state-parcel appraisal now anchor narrative 02 with named, quoted officials. Gap: Governor/AG/Senators still silent on Cristo Rey specifically — narrative 02's job is to give them the on-ramp.
7. **Urgency correction**: blasting began in April. "Before it's too late" is not rhetoric; it is the construction schedule.

## 3. Asset shortlist for the site (rights-clear)

Copy-with-credit: NOAA statue close-up (PD, hero image) · pilgrims-ascending (CC BY-SA 3.0) · CBP tower on the mountain (CC BY 4.0 — the P5 exhibit) · Scenic Drive landscape (CC BY 3.0, banner). Embed/link only: Polk documentary (1 hr history), Good Friday news segments, El Paso Inc. gallery, DIGIE archive, mtcristorey.com. Full rights table: [forage/media.md](../artifacts/forage/media.md).

## 3a. Image forage 02 addendum (2026-07-19 night — raw: [forage/media-02-model-images.md](../artifacts/forage/media-02-model-images.md))

Background forager, 25 new live-verified items (7 rights-clear, 18 link-only). What matters:

- **Pathos-frontal slot**: ONE rights-clear candidate — [VisitElPaso statue photo](https://www.flickr.com/photos/72649499@N02/15821041216) (CC BY 2.0) — but 640 px: card-grade, not hero-grade. The permission ask to the Restoration Committee (mtcristorey.com frontal) remains the real path to the hero slot.
- **New rhetorical gold**: [American Dam and Canal pano](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Dam_and_Canal_pano.jpg) (CC BY-SA 4.0, 5292 px) — the cross on the skyline ABOVE the border's water infrastructure: the monument tied visually to the very apparatus of the taking; also serves the acequia/watershed thread of narrative 02 v0.3.
- **Trail documentation**: VisitElPaso "Hike Through Time" 18-photo CC BY 2.0 set (1024 px) — pilgrimage/access evidence, frames to be picked on visual review.
- **3D-model references** (reference-only, any license): [DIGIE 15424](https://www.digie.org/en/media/15424) (statue at construction's end, 1939 — proportions before weathering, UTEP MS231 provenance) · [DIGIE 1123](https://www.digie.org/en/media/1123) (the plinth/base geometry the procedural model needs most) · the Derek Spear drone article (aerial orbits, embed to chase) · UTEP MS037 Soler collection offline (the documented Dec 1937 clay model would be the ideal massing reference — records request).
- **Gaps declared**: rights-clear eros/golden-hour EMPTY (Chiarello's sunset-with-wall-as-"thin black ribbon" is ARR link-only — worth a permission ask, it is the strongest dramatic-light image found); Juárez-side-looking-north EMPTY (closest miss is a US-side CC BY-NC-SA frame); model-rear EMPTY; Library of Congress unsearchable by agent (manual re-check).

## 4. Next forage (queued in bead-bind-startup)

Juárez-side pilgrims by name · barefoot/knees pilgrims interviewed · UTEP oral histories (Esmeltianos; Soler's letters; Perales's *Smeltertown*) · Sunland Park civic voices · the Escandon/Lehman manda family post-taking · ~~docket number + filings~~ (CLOSED, §5) · Governor/AG/Senate delegation statements (still none — confirmed absence, §5).

## 5. Cowork cloud run addendum (2026-07-19, evening — raw: [forage/cowork-run-01.md](../artifacts/forage/cowork-run-01.md))

**The docket is open**: *U.S. v. 14.259 Acres…*, **No. 2:26-cv-01458-KG-GBW** (D.N.M.), 55 entries, free RECAP PDFs (docs 22/34/36–39/42/46/47/52–55). Diocese counsel is **Georgetown ICAP** (Mary McCord et al.) + Mann Morrow. Now a first-class exhibit on the VDR documents shelf ([docket item](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/vdr/cristo-rey/documents/items/docket-2-26-cv-01458.json)).

**Corrections to §1** (docket beats press): the immediate-possession motion was filed **May 20** (doc 22), not July 6 — July 6 was the U.S. *reply* (doc 47). The 6/15 deposit opinion contains the campaign's best legal sentence: title is "defeasible," and *"the right to possession does not mean the right to immediate, actual possession"* — the court *"may withhold physical possession and enjoin construction or any activity that may disturb the environment, cultural or physical."*

**Docket is ahead of the news**: 7/23 hearing **vacated** (doc 54); possession decided **on the papers** after briefing; the U.S. files a **judgment-on-the-pleadings motion July 20** (response Aug 3, reply Aug 10); government served **drone footage** on court + Diocese 7/16; County Treasurer dismissed — Diocese is sole contesting defendant. *Apache Stronghold* supplemental-authority fight live (docs 51/55): Diocese argues judicial estoppel; U.S. answers it is "not restricting access."

**New witnesses with double standing**: **Lourdes Castañón, 74** (Restoration Committee) is both a press voice ("I feel I am touching the face of God," NYT via diario.mx 6/21) and **declarant doc 38** — press + sworn testimony in one person. Six declarations total incl. the **Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande (Hunn)** — the opposition is ecumenical, not only Catholic.

**Juárez picture (nuanced)**: substantial Spanish-language coverage (diario.mx series, Norte Digital, El Heraldo; intl. pickup to La Nación/El Tiempo), but **no named Juarense pilgrim** anywhere (confirmed absence), and the **Diocese of Ciudad Juárez declined to convoke** the June 28 pilgrimage (crossing-documentation realities; solidarity expressed). Narrative 03's binational claim stays honest: the tradition is binational; the mobilization currently is not. Also new: **500+ dinosaur footprints** threatened by the blasting (Norte Digital 1/29; Ray Aguilar, Sierra de Juárez collective) — a science/heritage thread beyond religion.

**NM officials**: confirmed silent on Cristo Rey specifically (Gov./AG/both Senators); Vasquez remains the only engaged delegation member; the Santa Teresa state condemnation is its own docket (**2:26-cv-01938**, defendant: State of New Mexico). Narrative 02's on-ramp framing stands.

**Archives roadmap for witness work**: UTEP **MS037 Urbici Soler Collection** (finding aid online), MS340 Daniggelis/Soler papers, MS585 ASARCO records; UTEP Institute of Oral History (1,600+ interviews, transcripts online, e.g. no. 1713 Ismael Holguin/Smeltertown; permissions oralhistory@utep.edu).

**Watch (top of queue): the July 20 U.S. motion for judgment on the pleadings.**