The Totonac are an Indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a city which they claim to have built). Until the mid-19th century they were the world's main producers of vanilla. The Totonac people cultivated vanilla in Papantla, but faced with competition when the French island of Réunion entered the market. This group of people also encountered conflicts over land ownership during the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, as the privatization of communal land in Papantla became more of a concern to local elites.

The term "totonac" refers to the people living in Totonacapan. There is no agreement as to the origin of the term. Some authors have translated the term "totonac" as a Nahuatl word meaning "People of Hot Land". The translation for this word in the Totonac Language, according to sources, is "toto-nacu" meaning "three hearts" signifying their three cities or cultural centers: Cempoala, Tajin and Teayo. Evidence, however, is inconclusive.

In the 15th century, the Aztecs labeled the region of the Totonac "Totonacapan"; which then extended roughly from Papantla in the north to Cempoala in the south. Totonacapan was largely hot and humid. Along with the normal agricultural crops of maize, manioc, squash, beans, pumpkin and chili peppers, the region was noted for its production of cotton. Even during the disastrous central Mexican famine of 1450-1454, the region remained a reliable agricultural center. At that time, many Aztecs were forced to sell themselves or their family members as slaves to the Totonac in exchange for subsistence maize.

Although there exist some exceptions, such as El Tajín and Cempoala, the Totonacs of the lowlands did not live in urban spaces or villages. Rather, Totonac society was mostly based on semi-isolated familial units that subsisted off roza horticulture, which involved the burning of forest to grow crops like beans, squash, and corn. Besides horticulture, lowland Totonacs also relied on gathering, fishing, and hunting to live. At the time of Independence, only 11 Totonac villages existed, which primarily served as the "important locuses of communal culture." This dispersion and autarkic lifestyle allowed a remarking amount of Totonac autonomy in the Papantla basin until the beginning of the 20th century.

Totonacs in the twentieth century led the peoples growing the highest quality vanilla, and most Mexican vanilla was produced by Totonacs. This widespread vanilla growth vastly shaped their society at the time. Seeking to profit from this vanilla boom, Totonac entrepreneurs pushed for privatization of formally communal lands due to the lands becoming more valuable. This resulted in massive social upheaval due to the longstanding traditions being threatened, and by the start of the 20th century, the old communal lands of the Totonacs had been mostly broken up and privatized.

Their association with agriculture of vanilla pre-dates the arrival of Columbus in the New World. While vanilla was long significant to Totonac culture, its importance as an export good did not emerge until the early-eighteenth century, when they traded with other Totonacs and with people in northern Oaxaca. The first regulation of the harvesting of Mexican vanilla appears in 1743, when the mayor of Papantla attempted to use a law for personal profit on the vanilla harvest. A second law regulating was promulgated in 1767, after Totonac vanilla growers in Colipa complained about thieves stealing immature vanilla pods. During Humboldt's travels in Mexico, most European imports of vanilla conveyed through the port of Veracruz, and Totonacs in the Misantla region harvested about 700,000 vanilla beans per year.

There is a total absence of comals, metates and manos meaning the Totonacs did not eat tortillas; however, even though corn was grown it did not form a large part of their diet. The Totonacs ate fruit, most notably zapotes, guavas, papayas, plantains and avocados. Men hunted and fished shark, turtle, deer, armadillo, opossums, and frogs. Women raised turkeys and dogs. Peasants as well as nobles ate corn porridge in the morning. Lunch was the main meal of the day and consisted of manioc, bean stew or even a rich meat sauce for the nobles. Fish and seafood as well as game was eaten by both nobles and farmers. The agave provided liquor.

Totonac women were expert weavers and embroiderers; they dressed grandly and braided their hair with feathers. The Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún stated that, in all aspects of their appearance, the women were "quite elegant", women wore skirts (embroidered for the nobles) and a small triangular poncho covering the breasts. Noble women wore shell and jade necklaces and earrings and often tattooed their faces with red ink. Married women wore their hair in the Nahuatl fashion while peasant women wore their hair long. Likewise, the noble men dressed well, adorning themselves with multicolored cloaks, loin cloths, necklaces, arm bands, lip plugs and devices made of the prized quetzal feathers. Hair was kept long with a thick tuft of hair on the top tied up with a ribbon.