Festival Cumbre Tajín

During the last 22 years, the Cumbre Tajín Festival has established itself as a model that seeks and safeguards the cultural heritage of the Totonacas. This model is based on the dissemination of its way of conceiving the world, its gastronomy, art, health, and language, which shows that it is a living room and in constant adaptation to the modern world.

It was 1999 when the world met the Tajín Summit for the first time, a festival that sought to highlight the best of Totonac culture; then came the construction of the Takilhsukut theme park in 2001.

The cosmogony of the Totonac people was increasingly visible before the eyes of the world, visitors from all latitudes arrived in the land of the three hearts.

Rituals such as the Litlan showed humanity the respect of the indigenous people for their traditions.

Cumbre Tajin is more alive than ever. The 2023 edition is considered the largest in its history; attendance reached 713 thousand 200 people and an economic benefit of more than 500 million pesos.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture dedicated itself to giving a new focus to this festivity, maintaining the cultural, and academic focus, and rescuing the knowledge of the Totonaca culture. Without forgetting the great concerts and activities for all ages.

One of the main achievements of Cumbre Tajin was the creation -in 2006- of the Center for Indigenous Arts, a cultural space made up of 16 schoolhouses that were registered on the List of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage.

In this space, the Totonac grandparents oversee perpetuating their knowledge, imparting it to the new generations. Among them is the Kantiyan or Casa de los Abuelos, a space for prayer and meditation, also the seat of the Totonaca Supreme Council.

Today at the Escuela de Niños Voladores, boys and girls from the age of four are trained, being educated in respect for nature and love for the culture inherited by their ancestors.

The rest of the schools, also called niches, that make up the CAI are the Casa del Arte de Sanar, Casa del Mundo del Algodón, Casa de Alfarería Tradicional Totonaca, Escuela de Danzas Tradicionales, Casa de la Música, Casa del Teatro, Casa del Community Tourism, House of Traditional Agriculture, House of Carpentry, House of the Totonaca Land, House of the Florida Word, House of Paintings, and the House of Communication and Diffusion Media.

There is also one that deserves special attention, due to the impact it has achieved worldwide, the Casa de la Cocina Tradicional, made up of the so-called Mujeres de Humo, six women and one man who have taken Totonac gastronomy to never-before-seen levels.