13 Land was assigned by inheritance. Parents passed it on to their children. Lots were not sold. If someone wanted to work, he was given a piece to cultivate, growing cassava on a large scale, and to build his dwelling. They planted crops close to the River Plátano and in Cerro El Tigre, mainly 32 cassava, banana, sugar cane and pineapple for their own consumption. 67. The culture and tradition of the Garífuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz are essentially oral. However, given third parties’ interest in their territories, they had to make arrangements for titling their lands and documenting their rights. In that way, they were obliged to alter their oral tradition and adopt the legal mechanisms found in Honduras to support and document their claims. 68. The Triunfo de la Cruz Community practices the following forms of social organization: a. The Community Council for the Improvement of the Community of Triunfo de la Cruz: Its responsibility is to promote and organize projects, plans, and programs designed to further the physical, environmental, and cultural development of the Community and to contribute to the maintenance and security of communal property – the Community’s land –, through the rational use of existing natural resources. The Community Council was granted legal standing as an asociación civil (legally incorporated body for other than commercial purposes) and its Statute was approved through Resolution No. 231-96, adopted by the Secretariat of the Interior and 33 Justice on January 27, 1997. b. The General Assembly of the Community of Triunfo de la Cruz: The Assembly comprises all [male and female] members of the Community and is the Council’s supreme deliberating and decision-making body. c. The Council of Elders: This traditional body advises and guides the Community and its organizations. d. The Committee to Defend the Land of Triunfo de la Cruz (CODETT): This Committee is responsible for matters to do with the land and its officers are appointed by the General Assembly of the Community. CODETT was established as a result of the need to defend the Community’s 34 land. C. The process of recognizing and titling the territory of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community and its members 69. Starting in the mid-1900s, the Triunfo de la Cruz Community began taking steps to obtain recognition of its rights over the lands it has occupied since ancestral times. That involved undertaking a series of administrative and judicial actions to elicit recognition from the Honduran State and effective guarantees to the Community’s traditional lands, within the domestic regulatory framework. According to the evidence presented by the parties, the procedures carried out and the titles obtained by the Community are as follows: 1. The granting of ejido title to 380 hectares, 51 ares, and 82.78 centiares (1946 – 1950) 70. The first action undertaken by the Community to obtain recognition of its communal lands it occupied was the request filed with the State for an “ejido title.” According to the information provided 32 Annex 2. Study by the Caribbean Central America Research Council on the “Ethnography of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community”. Appendix 1 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. 33 Annex 5. Certification of Resolution No. 231-96 dated January 27, 1997. Files for application with the National Agrarian Institute No. 47891, pp.5-11. Appendix 8 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. 34 Testimony of Gregoria Flores Martínez in the Alfredo Lopéz v. Honduras Case provided at the public hearing held before the Inter-American Court on June 28, 2005.