A cluster of Totonac-speaking city-states and dispersed farming communities along the Gulf coast of Veracruz and into Puebla and Hidalgo — a region the Aztecs themselves labeled Totonacapan by the 15th century, and whose largest town, Cempoala, became Hernán Cortés's first major Indigenous ally against the Aztec Empire in 1519.
Tributary to the Aztec Triple Alliance through the 15th century (even provisioning Aztecs with maize during the 1450-54 central Mexican famine); allied with Spain against Tenochtitlan in 1519; the Totonac people remain a living Indigenous nation in Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo today, historically renowned as Mexico's principal vanilla producers.
Classic Smithsonian Institute of Social Anthropology ethnography of the Totonac of the Papantla/Tajín area, covering social organization and territory.