According to the Dictionary of the Language Nahuatl or Mexican, the Totonac term is the totonacatl plural and it refers to the inhabitants of the county of Totonacapan. In the Totonac language this word "totonaco" it is composed by the terms tu'tu or a'ktu'tu with respect to the number three and nacu' that means heart.

The Totonac inhabit the coastal plain of the state of Veracruz and the North Sierra of Puebla.

The states with larger Totonac population are Veracruz and Puebla; they are followed by the Federal District, the State of Mexico, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tlaxcala and Tamaulipas. The migration is given by the employment shortage, of lands and conditions of social exclusion; or for the search of better economic, social and educational expectations in the cities.

Language - The language totonaco and the tepehua belong to the family totonacana, and they are part of the trunk macromaya.

Health - Their traditional doctors are midwives, healers and sorcerers that are indigenous and mestizos. The midwives aid the women during the gestation and the childbirth; they provide special cares to the mother and son, by means of temazcal baths and medicinal plants. The healer totonaco knows the use of the medicinal plants to alleviate the physical and mental wrongs, it cures the body and the soul. The sorcerer possesses supernatural powers that the healer doesn't have; he knows the use of the plants, and how to make charms and maleficios (charms that damage the charmed one).

Housing - In the area of Papantla the Totonac house is of rectangular or square plant, with hay roof, palm or "misanteca" leaf. The walls are of sticks placed vertically, some are recovered with mud. The house consists of a single room, employed as a kitchen and bedroom. In the patios they raise corral birds and they have a temazcal for the baths of vapor; in some houses that produce honey they hang the honeycombs on the walls.

Dress - The Totonac feminine dress is composed of shirt, bands and quexquémitl. The shirt is a square robe of short sleeve, embroidered with floral reasons, animals, saints' images, etc. In the Sierra of Puebla the entangled cloth has been substituted by a skirt of commercial cloth. The masculine dress is composed of shirt, short, bands, handkerchief and haversack. The strips have designs embroidered with symbolic elements related with myths and legends.

The system of beliefs of the Totonacs is the combination of symbols and signs reprocessed in myths is, rituals, ceremonies, etc., whose origin is in the Meso-American indigenous culture and in aspects of the Iberian popular Christianity. The thunder is one of the oldest Totonac gods, it is represented as an old man and he is related with the water.

Parties - The most important party is that of the patron saint; some saints of the neighboring towns are taken to the main party; sport, commercial, and religious activities (baptisms and confirmations) take place, the party lasts three days, and it finishes with a dance. An important celebration in the region is the Holy Week; during these days they do a procession with Jesus Christ images, Saint Entierra and Virgen Dolores. Among the totonacos this party is related with the Sun. Totonac parties cannot lack the dance; the well known one is that of "Voladores" (The Flyers) that contains elements of solar symbolism, and has achieved international fame.

Social organization - The "compadrazgo" among the Totonac creates a net in the personal and labor relationships. There are baptism godfathers, of marriage, and of burial. There is know to be a ceremony to begin a boy to the Totonac society when he's turning eight years.