The site was first named La Lomita ("the hillock") by a rancher, José Antonio Cantu, who was granted the land by Spain in 1770. In 1851, a French merchant named René Guyard purchased the land. A devout Catholic, Guyard built the chapel in 1865, and in 1871 bequeathed it to the
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Located between the
Brownsville and
Roma missions, La Lomita became an important stop for the
Cavalry of Christ; it served some 65 area ranches, and traveling missionaries often stopped there to rest. The area developed into a village as the Oblate Fathers constructed a rectory, a guest house, a blacksmith shop, a buggy shed, and quarters for the
lay brothers and laborers in what is now La Lomita Historic District. Following a flood in 1899, the chapel was rebuilt with stones from the surrounding hillside. and was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In 2010, a team of consultants was hired to restore the building; the project won a TSA Design Award and was featured in
Texas Architect magazine. Professor
Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov has suggested that La Lomita chapel, along with several other small, parapet-gabled buildings in the region, were designed by the noted French-American priest and architect
Pierre Yves Kéralum: "Father Keralum had the expertise, background, and mobility to achieve a substantial implantation of the Atlantic European roof type. Moreover, some related features such as gable-end shed rooms and table or bed outshots are also known in Breton folk architecture." Today, according to a local guidebook, La Lomita stands "—small and humble, cared for and preserved—marking the important role it played in the history of the area."
Border wall dispute In October 2018, the
United States Border Patrol filed a federal lawsuit to seize the land surrounding the chapel and begin surveying for a border fence. The pastor, Roy Snipes, and his bishop,
Daniel E. Flores, oppose the project, and the
Brownsville diocese has tried to put a stop to it in court. Moreover, according to Flores, the entire border wall project is "contrary to Catholic principles of the universality of human relations." Locals held several demonstrations in support of La Lomita. On
Palm Sunday, April 14, 2019, over a thousand parishioners held a procession from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church to the chapel. After the procession, Pastor Roy Snipes was nominated for an award by
Catholic Extension, a national fundraising organization that supports poor mission dioceses across the country. In retaliation for opposing the wall, Snipes became the target of a right-wing
smear campaign. The "
We Build the Wall" group (a privately funded effort, led by
Steve Bannon,
Brian Kolfage, and
Kris Kobach, to build a portion of Trump's border wall) vilified both Snipes and the
National Butterfly Center (another border site in south Texas that opposed wall construction on its land). At a hearing in
McAllen, Texas, on February 6, 2019, U.S. District Judge
Randy Crane said that the diocese must allow surveyors onto the grounds. If the government didn't reconsider its plan to seize the land, the diocese planned to assert its rights under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that prohibits the government from placing a "substantial burden" on the practice of religion. According to
Mary McCord, a Georgetown University ICAP attorney representing the diocese, "a physical barrier that cuts off access to the chapel, and not only to Father Roy and his parish but those who seek to worship there, is clearly a substantial burden on the exercise of religious freedom." In February 2019, Congress amended an existing appropriations bill, adding language that specifically prohibits new funding from being used to build border barriers at La Lomita and several other properties, including the
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, the
National Butterfly Center, and the area "within or east of" the Vista del Mar Ranch tract of the
Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Soon afterwards, however, Trump declared a
National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States, and the
White House Counsel claimed that the restrictions contained within the annual appropriations law did not apply, leaving the status of La Lomita and the other sites still in question. However, on June 3, 2019, another federal judge denied a request by the U.S. House of Representatives to temporarily block spending on the wall. Although the budget deal ultimately protected the chapel from wall construction, == See also ==